FA await referee's report on Mourinho insult

The Football Association will study referee Mike Riley's report before deciding whether to take action against Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for his allegedly calling the referee a filho da puta - which translates as 'son of a whore' or 'son of a bitch'.




Mourinho used the phrase in a confrontation with Riley at half time in the FA Cup quarter-final 3-3 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.


Mourinho has denied he intended to offend the match official. He said: 'If you listen to me speaking I say the kind of word you mention 10 times in every 15 words. 'If you have a microphone on the dugout, I say that during the game 20 times, easy.


The word can be abusive if you understand it as an abusive word. 'I tell the word to my players when I am not happy. I say it 50 times in a game, 50 times in training and I don't want to be offensive. 'I can be emotional, but I am polite. I never want to be offensive with somebody.'

Robben At Odds With Mourinho

The rift between Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and winger Arjen Robben appears to be intensifying after the player was left on the bench for the Carling Cup final against Arsenal on Sunday. Arjen Robben came on at half-time and helped set up the winning goal for Didier Drogba as the Blues triumphed 2-1.

However, Mourinho appears to be unhappy that Robben continues to pick up niggling injuries that rule him out of important games. After the Liverpool match in January, when Robben went off with an ankle injury, Mourinho was quoted as saying: "Some players are back from injury quickly and others like Robben take a long time. He is injured a lot and never for a small period - always a long time."

Robben himself told Dutch TV that he was upset to be benched for the Arsenal game.
"You will have to ask the manager about that," he said. "You can't be as angry as I was about it. For me, it's about time I was starting games. I was pleased about the assist I gave for the second goal and it showed what I could do."

Manchester United have had all the luck, says Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has claimed Manchester United have been fortunate in carving out a nine-point Premiership lead and believes "everything is on their side" in terms of lucky breaks in the title race.

Chelsea collected the first trophy of the season on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Carling Cup final. However, it allowed United to extend their Premiership advantage by three points on Saturday with a 2-1 win at Fulham.

Chelsea have 12 matches in which to recover the deficit but their manager has set about planting a seed of doubt in Manchester United heads. "I didn't see the Fulham game to be fair - we were travelling - but the information I have is it was completely undeserved," said Mourinho. "But football is about this. Sometimes you don't deserve it and you win. It's a game they could lose and in the end they win."

Mourinho may have appeared resigned to being disadvantaged by Manchester United's good fortune but he warmed to the theme, even referring to Ryan Giggs's controversial free-kick winner in the Champions League match against Lille. That match also saw Peter Odemwingie put the ball in the net only for the goal to be disallowed for a shove on Manchester United's defender Nemanja Vidic. "They go to the Champions League and have a disallowed goal for the opponent, and their goal is that Giggs' goal," said Mourinho.

"They go to Fulham and it looks like they deserve to lose and they win. They play in Tottenham, it's 0-0 and Cristiano Ronaldo dives, they get a penalty and win 4-0."

Despite evidently considering that Chelsea are due similar luck - and perhaps privately hoping his remarks might make referees administer it - Mourinho believes his players have it in them to force events in their favour.

"We have a match in hand to play," he said. "We have to try to go back to six points. At this moment we're in the last 16 of the Champions League, the last eight of the FA Cup and have won the Carling Cup. In the Premiership all we can do is keep winning and see if the next step is to close the gap or to open the gap."

"If the next step is to open the gap it's very, very difficult. If Chelsea close the gap and we can go from six points to four points, then everything is open."

Wenger Hits Back, Questions Mourinho's Class!

Arsene Wenger responded to Mourinho's taunt over never having won the Champions League, by suggesting that it was consistency over 10 or 15 years as a coach, and consistent good use of resources, that mattered. Wenger also took another shot at Mourinho by suggesting that the Chelsea coach did not have the class to handle success.

With the Carling Cup final 48 hours away, the now customary mind games are in full flow as both Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho try to edge the psychological advantage. Mourinho had earlier suggested that Wenger was not in the same league as him, having never won the Champions League.

"Whether I am big or small is not so important, it is not my obsession," Wenger responded this afternoon. "Plenty of managers have won the Champions League who will not be considered as great managers.

"What is important is that you look at the careers of ten, 15 or 20 years."
"The importance of the manager is over a longer distance. It is the continuity in his career."

"It will not change my life if I do not win the Champions League," he continued.

The Arsenal boss then went on to have another dig, suggesting Mourinho did not have the class to handle success, by saying that he was not "jumping on tables" around when Arsenal were the undisputed class of the Premiership,

"We played a whole season unbeaten [2003-04] but you did not see me every week jumping on the tables," he said, obviously pointing towards the Chelsea coach's constant clamour for attention.
"If you would like to compare every manager, give each one the same amount of resources. After five years you can see who has done the most."

Sheva would be staying at Stamford Bridge, at least till the summer.
The never ending “Shevchenko back to Milan” rumours have resurfaced following the revelations that there has been some argy-bargy between Mourinho and the Chelsea board. The Chelsea manager accused the Stamford Bridge board of refusing to back him in the January transfer window.

Reports have already suggested Mourinho could leave in the summer after a fall-out with owner Roman Abramovich. If this were the case, unamed sources have stated that Milan MD Galliani has already pitched in for the unsettled Ukranian.

And Mourinho said: “I’ve identified the players that I want but they will not come. It’s club reasons and I don’t have to tell you why".

“I have asked for players and it’s not my choice that no-one is coming.”

Mourinho was thought to be keen to bring in a defender and a forward during the transfer window. But the outspoken boss says if he is unable to bring in any new faces then he will not allow any of his squad to depart.

He added: “The information I have is that nobody is coming and if that’s the case then nobody is leaving.”