As Jose’s World Turns

It was a busy end to the week for you if you’re constantly scouring the tabloids for all things José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho (out of all those names he clearly should’ve gone with Felix). It appears Setanta Sports isn’t going to be enough to quench the employment thirst of Jose, and he’ll be looking to line-up a more prestigious, higher paying, less puppet-like gig for the start of the 2008-09 season. It appears one of the suitors lusting after Jose, Inter, was dancing his dance and about to bring him home to Milan for the evening (or next few years). Only they weren’t really dancing, according to him.

On Friday, the dreaded “source close to XXXXXX” said that Mourinho was imminently close to signing a deal with Inter Milan and that he’d already been to Milan to meet up with Massimo Moratti, the prez. On Saturday, Mourinho refuted such claims and did so without a hint of subtlety:

“It’s not true that I have been in Milan, in fact I did not meet president Moratti and I don’t even want to,” Mourinho told LUSA.

“Also. It’s not true that I am about to sign a contract with Inter.”

That about settles that. Or maybe not.

Maybe it’s not as cut and dried as it may seem. Inter is going through some minor turmoil as a squad, having suffered through many dropped points and disappointing losses, especially the early Champions League exit, along with having to deal with a coach who announced his resignation, only to rescind it the next day. Their sizable lead in the table is down to just four points with 7 games to go, and the campaign is starting become reminiscent of their famous collapse at the end of the 2001-02 season.

I don’t know too many Inter supporters who think Roberto Mancini will be in Milan next season. Hell, I don’t think many Inter supporters want him in Milan next season. It appears he may have lost the locker room and there have been many internal quarrels. His chances of remaining on the sidelines are dwindling, gaining momentum with each passing week.

So the question on my mind, and perhaps many others as well, is whether or not this is a smoke screen. Has he really been wooed by Moratti’s big pay packets and is simply keeping it quiet until the end of the season for the good of the current squad? I certainly wouldn’t put it past him or Moratti. By distancing himself so surely (“I don’t even want to”), he has effectively put rest to the rumors as well as he can; the media will always speculate – it sells print, after all – but it’s to bed. For him, at least.

Were I a betting man, I’d be willing to put up the change in the couch that Mourinho winds up at Inter next year. Smoke screens be damned; because where there’s this much smoke, and his personal assistant yelling “fire!”, it’s hard to think otherwise.

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Category: English Premier League, Serie A, Spain La Liga