The cook, the thieves, the floodlight man and the doctor: the club staff who upset Mourinho
Chelsea’s first team doctor has been demoted by the club, seemingly for not being as finely tuned into Eden Hazard’s theatrics as the manager.
“Even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench you have to understand the game,” railed Mourinho after the 2-2 draw with Swansea last Saturday.
And perhaps he is well-placed to make that kind of demand for versatility, since Mourinho himself understands cooking, butchery, applied horticulture, floodlight operation and every other aspect of running a football club.
Aside from the playing staff, many of whom have had their own difficulties, here are some of the employees who have suffered under Mourinho’s various reigns.
In his book The Special One: The Dark Side of Jose Mourinho, Diego Torres revealed that Mourinho had been unhappy with the meat served up at Real Madrid’s training base at Valdebebas.
Too tough, was the jist of Jose’s beef. And both cooks and butchers were put to the sword in the fallout, according to Torres.
“As the winter of 2011 passed without his complaints being resolved, the manager ordered Madrid to sack their chefs and change their butchers. He said the meat had a ‘very high percentage of nerve tissue’.”
“He behaved as if he were a gourmet,” wrote Torres.
In 2005, Chelsea doctor Neil Frazer left the club, allegedly following a dispute over the fitness of Arjen Robben.
At Madrid, the medical personnel were among those Mourinho suspected of ‘stealing secrets’ from the club. Whatever about hippocratic oath, Mourinho eventually became convinced they were breaching their oath of allegiance to him.
Torres writes: “Upon reaching Valdebebas the players were summoned by Mourinho to the dressing room and all the support staff – kit-men, masseurs and medical staff – were asked to leave and close the door behind them, as they were suspected of leaking information to the press.”
Madrid president Florentino Perez pointed out that many club staff had contacted him to complain about Mourinho’s attitude. Torres wrote:
“It was not only the players who complained. The president said that the coach had serious problems even with the doctors and cooks.”
Mourinho blamed Chelsea’s man on the light switch for a lacklustre opening half in the 2-1 win over QPR last season.
"I thought we deserved to win but we didn’t play very well. The man responsible for the lights was in the same mood as the crowd. Everyone was asleep, It took more than 20 minutes for the lights to come on. Until then everyone was in the dark."
After a 3-0 defeat of Espanyol in 2010, Mourinho announced his dissatisfaction with the state of the Bernabeu pitch.
"In light of the circumstances I’m satisfied, because it is not easy to play on a potato field."
Madrid soon relaid the surface.
According to Torres in The Special One, it was the aesthetics that most upset him on Real’s pre-season training camp at the University of California.
“Mourinho was constantly agitated. He did not like the pitches at the UCLA. He said that the colour of the grass was not right and ordered the pitches to be returfed, costing Madrid thousands of dollars.”
At Madrid, Mourinho was also heavily critical of Alberto Toril - who coached Real Madrid Castilla, the club’s Segunda División B side for youth players.
"They have a different model. There are players at Castilla who play in positions which don’t exist in the first team. He [Toril] has his autonomy. He must decide whether it’s more important to finish fourth, fifth or six in Segunda, or to help the progression of players to the first team.”
Tongue was a little bit in cheek with this one, but last season Mourinho hit out at Chelsea catering team for their generous treatment of the FA’s match delegates, who adjudged Chelsea the worst behaved team in the Premier League.
“We have to change the catering. We have to change it because many times I think they don’t see the games. Really. I think they stay eating and drinking.
The only one I met was the one on the back page of The Sun because that was the phenomenal guy that made the report on the Matic situation.
“That one for sure had sushi, lobster, everything. Champagne of very high quality, Cristal!”
