Looking calm and unruffled, Jose Mourinho returned to face the Spanish media for the first time since April when a famous outburst earned him a five-match sanction from UEFA.
And the Real Madrid coach had a clear message for all ahead of yesterday’s Spanish Supercup first-leg match against Barcelona: “No one will shut me up.”
Saturday was the Portuguese coach’s first news conference in Spain since a 3-2 defeat to Zaragoza, which came after a 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals on 27 April. Then, Mourinho went on a long-winded rant claiming Barcelona’s recent successes were down to preferential treatment from referees and UEFA.
When asked what he had learned from the entire episode, Mourinho was clear again: “I learned you can’t tell the truth.”
Mourinho refused to give his thoughts on Barcelona, including when asked if he thought the three-time defending Spanish champion’s squad was perhaps among the all-time greats.
“I don’t talk about Barcelona. I only talk about my team,” Mourinho said at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where the club said 57,000 fans came out to watch an open training session that took on more of a summer beach party.
But that lighthearted atmosphere did not translate indoors to the season’s first news conference.
While Mourinho looked as posied and assured as ever, the season was already heating up thanks to the Portuguese coach’s choice of words. Including when it came to the two Champions League matches he still has to miss as part of his ban.
“I won’t talk about the Champions League for as long as I’m sanctioned,” Mourinho responded when asked if a 10th European Cup was the top priority this season.
But he also celebrated UEFA’s reduction of his original ban.
“I’ve had some important victories during my career but for an organism like UEFA, which is not a normal or democratic organism, to reduce my sanction has tremendous significance. Tremendous significance,” he said.
“They didn’t reduce it any more because they would have found themselves in an uncomfortable situation so for me it’s a great victory. Either way, as long as I’m sanctioned, I won’t talk about the Champions League.”
UEFA’s appeal panel ruled that while Mourinho’s formal five-match sanction should stand, two matches instead of one would be suspended for three years. Mourinho served one match of the ban last season when he missed the semifinal return leg, a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou that sent Barcelona to the final where it beat Manchester United.
Mourinho said while the structure at Madrid had changed since general director Jorge Valdano was fired in May, his own role had not altered drastically.
“We have a structure, we have to keep improving the structure - it’s not something we can just put in practice and sleep on it,” Mourinho said. “We know where we want to go and we are happy with the beginning of the structure we put in practice. From the president to general director and down to me and (Zinedine) Zidane, we are working hard and we are happy.”