London Calling: Mourinho sulks, Fletcher heads South while one ex-player puts the twit back into Twitter
The talk of London this week was of FA Cup shocks – one in particular. Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea comfortably led Bradford City 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
No-one could have foreseen what was to unfold. The Bantams hit back with four goals to stun the home crowd and eliminate Chelsea, thus removing the Blue’s hopes of a quadruple.
It was Mourinho’s first Chelsea loss against a lower league side, in this case a full 49 places below.
After the match, Mourinho entered the City locker room to personally congratulate each Bradford player. His conduct towards his own players was not so graceful.
According to Jeremy Wilson in the Telegraph, the Portuguese coach refused to talk to his own players in the dressing room.
“There was no shouting, no raised voice, no mention of being “embarrassed” or “ashamed”. There was no talk of the “disgrace” that Chelsea collectively felt. Instead there was simply silence.
Mourinho had individually congratulated the raucous Bradford City players on one of the FA Cup’s most remarkable upsets but he did not exchange so much as a word with any of his Chelsea players in the aftermath of defeat.”
In the East of the Capital, the Evening Standard reports that Manchester United playmaker Darren Fletcher may be on his way to West Ham.
Fletcher has been at the Manchester club for 20 years but found little playing time in recent years due to ulcerative colitis. With his Scottish compatriots, Alex Ferguson and David Moyes no longer in charge at Old Trafford, he has bee told he may leave on a free transfer by Louis van Gaal.
Did West Ham’s Allardyce declare war on the beautiful game?
In one of the stupidest stories of the week, Thierry Henry received a public castigation for referring to Liverpool captain Steve Gerrard as ‘Steve G’ on television.
Jamie Carragher or “Jamie C” as he doesn’t like to be called put the twit back into Twitter to voice his pettiness. insisting: “That [nickname]was was only for people at the club.”
This plays wonderfully into two stereotypes; firstly many English folk believe that Liverpool fans are among the most easily offended in the country. Secondly, one can only imagine the stereotypical Gallic shrug of the shoulders when Henry was eventually informed of his “faux pas”.
Henry’s career recovered from being termed ‘the Hand of Gaul’ so somehow it’s likely Mr Gerrard will recover from the terrible slight, even if Jamie Carragher might take a while to live down how much of an arse he made of himself for no apparent reason.
