Mourinho brings shame on the game

WHEN Vince Lombardi was strutting his stuff as the most successful coach in American football history he gave the sports world some of its pithiest phrases.

Among the most famous: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Little was Lombardi to know that a Portuguese egotist, a French philosopher, a Scottish bully and a portly Spaniard would take him quite so literally.

But that's what we have at the top, or in Arsenal's case close to halfway, of the Premiership four men in Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez, yes even mild-mannered, level-headed Benitez, who seemingly would rubbish any linesman or slate any referee to win a football match.

What a dreadful indictment that is of the men who not only configure the formations of England's top teams.

Was it really beyond Mourinho to show a grain of magnanimity and shake the hand of Wenger after Chelsea's 2-0 win at Highbury?

Was it too much to expect Wenger to accept for once that the better team won instead of implying that Chelsea fielded 14 men, the demons in his fevered imagination suggesting referee Rob Styles and his two assistants comprised the extra three?

Is it not time that Ferguson, rather than casually impugning the impartiality of officials, ended his 19-month feud with the BBC?

And couldn't Benitez, on a night in Yokohama when so many bowed their heads in silence for his recently-deceased father, have tempered his anger at some admittedly dodgy decisions in the World Club Championship final to set sport and life in true perspective?

In sending out the wrong signals to impressionable youth they are all culpable, but by far the worst is Mourinho. His apologists smile at his antics.

They chuckle at his trademark grey overcoat, his 'special agent' commercials, touchline gestures and quirky delivery. They maintain he has brought interest and intrigue as well as astute coaching to the Premiership and that cannot be denied.

But he has also brought pettiness, disrespect and malevolence, all of which sum up the arrogance of a club which believes it can buy anyone or anything just because it possesses a mountain of Russian money.

We're not damning the players. Michael Essien's undoubted skills might come laced with Robbie Savage-style relish but, let's remember, role models rarely come better than John Terry and Frank Lampard.

Mourinho has the money, the biggest squad, most of the best players and a nine-point lead in the Premiership over United, 15 over Liverpool and 20 over Arsenal.

In reality, the Premiership race is over, so much so that on Christmas Day when Mourinho is taking a sip of his favourite port he could be excused a warm glow of delight at the troubles of his opponents.

Ferguson is out of Europe, Benitez has taken time to come to terms with the Premiership.

And Wenger has allowed Arsenal to slide from the 'Invincibles' of 18 months ago to a side with no balance, no width, no Vieira and one no longer capable of mounting a Premiership challenge.

A smug smile at Arsenal's predicament would be only human. So would a Portuguese wave in the direction of the league table.

What is not acceptable is calling Wenger "a voyeur," accusing Wigan striker Lee McCulloch of feigning injury, calling United players "cheats" during their Carling Cup semi-final last season and on Sunday preposterously suggesting Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos should have been sent off twice while at the same time defending the flaws of Essien.

It's time Mourinho accepted he has a duty to more than the chequebook of Roman Abramovich and paid his dues to English football which embraced him so warmly when he arrived as the self-proclaimed "special one."

Never will that be more crucial than when Chelsea take on Barcelona in a Champions League tie simmering with acrimony surrounding the Anders Frisk affair last season when Mourinho accused Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard of attempting to influence the Swedish referee.

It saw Frisk retire following death threats and Mourinho once more fail to shake hands with his opposite coach.

"For me it's not important to shake hands," says Mourinho.

Well, it should be. Winning is not the only thing. The English way demands that winning is achieved with a semblance of grace and honour.