Ronaldo boost fails to lift Mourinho’s sullen mood

THE trouble with Jose Mourinho is that you never know if what you see is what you get — like the boy who cried wolf, he has played his mind games so often that you don’t know when he is lying any more.

So when Mourinho said last week that Cristiano Ronaldo was effectively out of Real Madrid’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Tottenham, nobody believed him. And surprise, surprise, the Portguese winger came through a training session in the warm Madrid sun yesterday to prove his fitness for tonight’s game.

It might have been a huge boost for Madrid, but the news did not do much for his manager’s mood, which was more moody than mischievous.

The reason was clear. Just like this tie could make or break Tottenham’s season, for Mourinho it may well determine whether he continues as Madrid manager or not.

His relationship with director of football Jorge Valdano has already gone past the point of no return, and now it seems the locals are revolting. The weekend’s defeat by Sporting Gijon has left Madrid eight points behind Barcelona and effectively out of the title race, so the Champions League is his last hope to deliver at the Bernabeu.

It was certainly the main topic of conversation among Spanish reporters at his press conference yesterday, though naturally Mourinho was keen to move the subject on to Spurs as quickly as he could. Yet when it came to taking questions from English journalists, Mourinho upset them too, taking only a handful of questions before calling a halt to his conference.

He did take time, though, to stress how highly he thinks of Harry Redknapp, having got to know the former Portsmouth manager during his time in England. “He is my friend, and friends are always nice between themselves,” he said.

“I say nice things about him and he does me. That’s life. That’s normal.”

Mourinho has not been surprised by Tottenham’s success under Redknapp because he believes the manager finally has the team and the resources to show what he can do at the highest level.

“I’m very happy because when I was in England he was not managing teams with the possibility of reaching these kind of ambitions. Finally after the good work he was doing, he went to Tottenham, who had the resources to build a good team. I’m very, very happy for him. I hope, and I say this from my heart, that if I don’t reach the final, then I hope he does it.”

Mourinho is also an admirer of Gareth Bale, having seen what the Welsh winger did to his former side Inter. Mourinho was not surprised to see Maicon and the rest taken apart by Bale earlier in the competition.

“I think I was one of the first to say he will be an amazing player. I was saying that when he was not yet known in European football, just in England so I know the great player he is. He is still young, there is a big space to improve so he will be a really top, top, top so I have no doubt about that.”