Spain’s constant pantomime

Before the match, the walls had been caving in on Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid’s manager. He rolled into the Spanish capital almost three years ago, having completed a historic treble with Inter Milan.

In his first season in charge, he left a trail of destruction — alienating Spanish League officials; castigating and provoking Barcelona at every turn; upbraiding UEFA (and most curiously of all, UNICEF) with his conspiracy theories; while becoming a hero to Real Madrid aficionados for defending their honour. A week after he poked Barça’s current coach Tito Vilanova in the eye during a pitch-side fracas at the end of the 2011 Spanish Super Cup final, fans at the Bernabéu wielded a sign behind the south-end goal: “Mourinho, your finger shows us the way”.

Eight months later, he finally delivered on his mandate, knocking Barcelona off its perch, having galvanised a crack Real Madrid outfit, hallmarked by whirlwind counter-attacks in which half of the team’s goals came within 20 seconds of gaining possession, to secure a record-breaking, 100-point championship-winning tally.

While Real Madrid’s players celebrated on the pitch with fans after their 3-0 title-winning triumph at Athletic Bilbao’s ground, photographers converged on Mourinho. The Portuguese raised seven fingers in triumph. He had just won his seventh league championship during his 12-year management odyssey, the toughest, he claimed afterwards, of them all. This wasn’t about Real Madrid stopping Barcelona from doing a four-in-a-row. This was about José Mourinho, Inc., contemporary soccer’s most successful mercenary.

This season, however, the wheels came off spectacularly. In the league, Real Madrid trail Barça by 16 points with 13 games remaining. All the battles waged have been internal. At a club renowned for its player power, Mourinho has picked fights with its most senior players; in one surly moment last January he even berated Cristiano Ronaldo, who has notched more than a goal a game for the club, in a dressing room row for taking a quick throw during a cup game against Valencia.

The day before Real Madrid played Espanyol in the league in December, Mourinho and five acolytes cornered a radio journalist, Anton Meana, after a Bernabéu press conference. In a 25-minute exchange, which was reported the following day in the Spanish press, Mourinho tore strips off him for claiming that Real Madrid’s goalkeeping coach was spying on team players for his boss, concluding: “In the world of football, me and my people are on top; in the world of journalism, you’re a piece of shit.”

During the tirade, Mourinho let slip that there were “three black sheep” in his squad; it was the first public admission that there was a schism in the Real Madrid dressing room, the fault-lines of which are along nationalist lines. In one corner, the Spanish contingent, spearheaded by Sergio Ramos and Spain national team captain Iker Casillas, an inviolable character in Spanish society, a status enhanced by his glamorous relationship with the stunning-looking TV reporter Sara Carbonero; and in the other, an isolated, Portuguese-speaking cohort, who, according to the team’s enforcer, Pepe, have been “persecuted” by the Spanish press.

The tussles with injured, club captain Casillas and Ramos, both of whom have been dropped ignominiously this season, have been deep-seated and detrimental, and highlight the stress Mourinho has been under in Madrid. Previous triumphs for him in Portugal, England and Italy were built on unbreakable team spirit, epitomised by Didier Drogba’s tears as he left Stamford Bridge and melodramatic remarks by former Inter star Wesley Sneijder that he “would kill or die for Mourinho”.

Casillas and Ramos met with club president, Florentino Pérez for a dinner late in January to negotiate end-of-season win bonuses for the team, and, according to reports by Marca, Spain’s biggest-selling sports newspaper, presented him with an ultimatum: “in June, either Mourinho or us”.

A mid-season severance for him was being touted, should Real Madrid lose to Manchester United in their Champions League tie on Tuesday, a payoff which would cost Real Madrid around €20 million. Now a stay of execution is warranted.

The Copa del Rey victory has energised Real Madrid. It has given the club crucial momentum. Barça, meanwhile, look despondent. Signs appeared in the pre-match press conferences on Monday. The press room is Mourinho’s domain. He was at his diabolical best, launching a charm offensive. Instead of antagonising, he sought to applaud their sportsmanship, a u-turn on Real Madrid’s previous allegations of Barça’s cheating, drug-taking and improper relations with soccer’s governing bodies.

Responding to questions about Barcelona’s listless 2-0 defeat to Milan in the Champions League, Mourinho said he preferred to dwell on the lessons Real Madrid had received from Barça in the past: “Fair play lessons, lessons on how to behave in football, to not talk with the referees, to not pressurise the referee, to not surround the referee during the match, to not simulate (injuries) trying to get opponents booked. And obviously how to play very good football as they do.”

Roles were reversed. It was Barça’s caretaker coach, Jordi Roura, who complained about the referee for the cup tie, Undiano Mallenco, whose two previous matches officiating for Barcelona were the 2011 Copa del Rey final loss to Real Madrid and league defeat in January against Real Sociedad.

Roura is under the cosh in a job he admits he never coveted. Vilanova, Barça’s manager, has been in New York since December receiving treatment for a re-occurrence of throat cancer. Within a few weeks of his departure, which extends until April, things began to unravel.

Barça, imperious in the league until the Christmas break, have lost three and drawn three games since mid-January in all competitions. At the moment his embattled players need his tactical nous and reassuring words, he’s reduced to watching games from across the Atlantic on specially-installed CCTV cameras and sending the occasional text message to Roura in the dugout.

In some respects, Barça are the victims of their own excellence. The club has contested five Champions League semi-finals in a row, won three crowns in seven seasons, as well as a clatter of domestic league trophies and cups. Its players have backboned Spain’s three international triumphs — seven of the starting XI in the 2010 World Cup final, excluding substitute Cesc Fabregas, were culled from their ranks. There are taxing miles on the clock, epitomised in the unsavoury sight of captain Carles Puyol, who will be 35 next month, ignominiously stuttering and falling in the box preceding Real Madrid’s crucial second goal on Tuesday night.

There are other, familiar technical failings. They have been leaking goals, having conceded goals in 12 consecutive games. There is an over-reliance on Messi’s goalscoring prowess. The little Argentine, although subdued by Milan and Real Madrid, has scored an incredible 38 league goals in 25 games this season. His teammates, however, are coming up short. Alexis Sánchez, with only one goal this season, is suffering from a lack of confidence.

Rumours abound in the Spanish football press that David Villa and Messi aren’t getting on. Last Saturday night, during a league game against Sevilla, in which Villa scored, it was noted that Messi only passed the ball to him once. It is said he will leave the club in the summer.

It’s inevitable Mourinho — even if he fulfils Real Madrid’s great obsession by winning la decima, its tenth European Cup — will depart Spain, too, probably in June.

This afternoon, Real Madrid hosts Barça at the Bernabéu in the league. In Spain, people on the streets are saying it’s only a decaffeinated clásico. Mourinho conceded the title back in December.

Expect him to rest several of his players, especially playmaker Xabi Alonso. Everything hinges for Mourinho on defeat of Manchester United next week. For Barcelona, the game has psychological significance. On Sport, one of Barcelona’s sports newspapers, there was a cartoon on Wednesday depicting Barça fans reaching for the medicine cabinet: anti-depressants today; viagra tomorrow. They need to get it up for this one.

nRichard Fitzpatrick is the author of El Clásico: Barcelona v Real Madrid, Football’s Greatest Rivalry, which is published by Bloomsbury.