January 23, 2012

José Mourinho shrugged off the first public outcry by Real Madrid fans against him saying the whistling during the 4-1 home win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday comes with the job at a club where “they jeer the biggest names in football”.

Four days after Madrid lost yet again under him to fierce rival Barcelona, the Portuguese coach was repeatedly jeered despite the team maintaining a five-point lead over Barcelona at the top of the league.

“[Zinedine] Zidane was also whistled here. Ronaldo was whistled here. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Ballon d’Or winner, was whistled here. Why can’t I be whistled here?” Mourinho said. “Zidane responded with his football, Ronaldo the same. Cristiano keeps doing it, I keep working.

Mourinho’s arrival at the Bernabéu was celebrated after leading Internazionale to the Champions League title in 2010 and he said if he had been heckled at a club where it was not normal then he would be concerned.

“If they jeered me at a club where they don’t normally jeer anybody, then I might be worried. But here, where they jeer the biggest names in football, it’s not a problem. It never happened before at Porto, at Chelsea or at Inter. There is a first for everything.”

Fans began to show their discontent over his tactics towards the end of the 2-1 loss to Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-final on Wednesday. The second leg is this Wednesday.

Marca reported earlier on Sunday that most of the squad is unhappy that several of the Spanish players had aired grievances with Mourinho, who reportedly did not take kindly to the criticism. Mourinho and the defender Sergio Ramos reportedly disagreed about a number of issues related to the team.

“What Sergio wanted to say was that if we fail we are all responsible, the players and the coaches,” said the Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa. “Whistles against Mou are whistles against us, it’s unfair to put all the blame on him for last Wednesday. If anyone deserves the whistles, it’s us.”

The former Chelsea manager refused to comment on the allegations despite being asked several times in his post-match news conference. “I’m a football professional who will defend Real Madrid with dignity. They are never going to have any problem with me, my relation with the club’s board is fantastic.”

Real fell behind as early as the 13th minute when Fernando Llorente finished off a swift break with a superb volley before Marcelo cut through the visiting defence to equalise in the 25th.

The referee ruled that Kaká had been fouled in the penalty area by Ander Iturraspe two minutes into the second half and Cristiano Ronaldo scored the resulting penalty. Oscar de Marcos was sent off just over 24 minutes from time when he brought Mesut Ozil down in the area and Ronaldo added his second from the spot to take his tally for the season to 23.

Bilbao’s challenge fizzled out as their players tired and José Callejón added a fourth five minutes from time.

“We knew it was going to be a very, very tough game but we managed to play the ball around well and it was an extremely important win for us,” said the Real Madrid left-back, Marcelo.

Asked about the reported rift between Mourinho and some of Real’s Spanish internationals, the Brazilian added: “If there was any division you would have seen it on the pitch. We showed tonight that there is no problem.”

Share This

---

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•