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| Matic and Ivanovic celebrating title win. |
After Sunday’s win
over Crystal Palace, a game which confirmed what has been an open secret since
February, Chelsea were crowned champions in England. In his press conference
after the game, Jose Mourinho eulogized his team and players on how they had
done extremely well. But like classic Jose, that was just the beginning. He
went on:
“It might be smarter to coach in a country where it is
easier to be champion. I chose a club
with no tradition of titles, a hard job. When I came back, I knew I had the
most difficult League to win in the world. Here we don’t win 6-0 or 8-0.”
Of course no one's
name was mentioned. But any discerning football fan doesn't need a soothsayer
to tell him that Mou's comments were a calculated dig at Pep Guardiola and to
some extent the league in Spain.
At a time when the
Chelsea manager should be enjoying the beauty of winning his team's first
league title in 5 years, and plotting how to stop the rot of English team's
malaise in European competitions, Jose was only concerned with cheap and unnecessary shots. Is he insecure? Does he feel jealousy?
I tweeted about the
comments and how idiotic the statement from the Portuguese was and I got an
interesting response. Someone told me Mourinho wasn't far from the truth
because in Germany, it is a one sided league and in Spain it's a 2 horse race.
But in England about 4 or 5 teams are always challenging.
In fact, Last month,
in a response to Gareth Bale's assertion that the La-Liga was the most
difficult league in the world (I don't totally agree), Mou more or less
confirmed what the fan tweeted when he told BT Sport:
"[Bale said that]
because he's there. You have to accept what Gareth says, but I was also there.
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| Mourinho Celebrating Premier League Title Years Ago |
"I won La Liga, I
lost La Liga, but I [also] won La Liga, and I know clearly the differences
between La Liga and the Premier League.
"To go to matches
knowing that you are going to win for sure is not the best thing. In Spain
everybody knows that two teams are top of the world. A third team like Atletico
is doing wonderfully well and they won last year, which is not normal.
"But after that
there is a huge competitive difference and that's why the record is 100 points,
126 goals. In England, 100 points and 126 goals is impossible. If someone
reaches 100 points and scores 126 goals, it's not the best competition for sure;
they can be the best team, but not the best competition."
For the average fan,
this propaganda might be true but it gets on my nerves when supposed sports
presenters still buy this same line and preach it as the gospel to the naive listening/watching
public. And why do I call it propaganda?
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| What's on Mou's Mind? |
Let's just take a look
the two topical issues concerning this debate: competitiveness in terms on
number of teams challenging as well as the overall quality of opposition with
regards to England in the last 6 seasons. Last season was the first time more
than 2 or 3 teams looked like competing for the title. Liverpool, Arsenal,
Chelsea and eventual winners City challenged. Take a look at this season, only
a deluded Arsenal fan will call their team title challengers. United and
Liverpool weren't even in it. Just Chelsea and City looked like they would be
champions until the Citizens faltered sometime in February/March. 3
seasons ago, Chelsea were 20 points behind United in Dec. They finished 3rd but
there was only Man City and United in the mix with Sir Alex winning his last PL
title. 4 seasons ago, there was also a 2 horse race between City and
United. Chelsea finished 6th and only got into Europe because they won the
Champions League. Arsenal finished 3rd but we're closer to the 6th than the top
2. 5 seasons ago, there was a 3 horse race with Arsenal fading away in February
and United piping Chelsea to the tile. And going back 6 seasons ago, it was
Chelsea and United fighting for the crown.
So where is that whole
4/5 teams can win the league jargon coming from?
The other side of the
argument blotted out by Mourinho and explored by EPL propagandists is that
there's no outrageous score line in the league as compared to say Spain and
Germany because there is more competition. They say there's no City beating
Burnley 7:0 like Real or Barca would do against Cordoba or Bayern against Cologne.
Maybe, I can accept that the chances of anyone beating the top teams in England
are more than it is in Spain and Germany. And also the chances of such
outrageous scorelines occurring are low. But have we stopped to ask ourselves,
do the top teams in England posses the kind of quality and firepower that Real,
Bayern and Barca have? Like my colleague Ngozi Ezeuduma (@ngklahela) noted on twitter days ago, the 4 teams in the CL semis
have mastered the art of putting fear in their opponents because of their
quality. Real, Barca, Bayern and to some extent Juventus have that extra
quality that others don't have and that's why they are not only successful at
home but also in Europe.
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| Cesc and Sanchez. EPL Greats? Barca Rejects? |
Look at this scenario:
Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas (at least the first 4/5 months) are arguably
the two best players of Premier League sides Arsenal and Chelsea. But these two
players were not seen as great cogs in the wheel of the present Barca team.
More importantly, if you add the EPL’s best player this season Eden Hazard
into the mix, none of these three would most probably be in the top 3 cadre at
both Real and Barcelona. And the QUALITY of both the top two teams in Spain and
Bayern in Germany is the major reason they dominate and pummel teams
scandalously and not because of the lack of competitiveness.
You still don’t agree?
Well Tuesday night at the Camp Nou in the Barca/Bayern game should convince you
more. Both teams were on equal footing for almost 77 minutes until the
brilliance of Messi changed the game’s complexion. If Messi can do such against
a star-studded Bayern, is it the Stoke, Burnley, Cordoba or Elche that will
withstand him?
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| Bayern Winning UCL After 2 Final Losses |
Real, Bayern and Barca
pummel not just their opponents in the league but also opponents in Europe.
Just this season alone, Bayern hit 7 past Shaktar and 6 past Porto. Barca humbled Man City home and
away this season and hammered a PSG that Chelsea found difficult to face 5:1; Real
smashed 6 past Schalke not so long ago right?
Bayern, Real and Barca
do not just dominate their league with their quality; they also bring that
dominance to Europe amongst the best from everywhere else. This is the third time in six seasons all three have been in
the semi-finals. All three have reached the semis five of the last six seasons.
Of the 24 semi-final slots available over the past six years, these three have
filled 15 of them. They have also won 4 out of the last 6 titles
with a possibility one of them could also win this year’s edition.
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| Barca: Last Won UCL in 2011 |
Let’s also compare the
last 6 seasons in Spain. 3 of the last 6 seasons have had a 2-way Real and
Barca battle agreed. But this season, it has been a 3 way battle until March.
Last year, 3 teams also battled with Athleti piping Real and Barca while 3
seasons ago, Athleti was also in the mix till March. In Germany, the last 2
years has seen Bayern dominate almost single handedly. Before then, we had a 2
horse race between either them and Dortmund or them and Wolfsburg 6 seasons
back.
If Mourinho can allege
that he chose to come a league where it was difficult to win and where the completion
was huge, how does he explain the 13 points difference between Chelsea and
second placed Arsenal/City? Or can’t we also say the same way
Dortmund/Wolfsburg have not competed with Bayern is the same way
Arsenal/Manchester United/City haven’t also given him competition?
On a final note, I think its worthy to note
that Jose Mourinho while being a fantastic manager and a serial winner, almost
always loves to be the centre of attraction everywhere he has coached. He has
ridiculed the lack of competitiveness of the La-Liga and Bundesliga in recent
times but after winning the La-Liga in 2012, Mourinho told the BBC: “It's the seventh, but it's been the most difficult."
(http://bbc.in/1P3cJxR ) and also reiterated
same to Real Madrid TV: "I
have previously won titles in Portugal, England and Italy, but this one in
Spain is the hardest title so far. “
(http://bit.ly/1bAiGjf )
And I ask, if indeed
the competitiveness (or lack of as he put it) of the La-Liga made it quite easy
to win, how come Mourinho won just 1 out of 3 despite spending over 300 million
pounds on players at Real Madrid?
