I’ve got you under my skin

By Amy Eustace, writing from Dublin.

There’s a common misconception around the football world that ‘mind games’ and attempts to get under the skin of an opposing team before a big game is somehow a new tactic - one made de rigueur by Sir Alex Ferguson, one that you would never have found in the good old days of the sport in the absence of Sky Sports News and similar demons. Untrue, of course. Think Clough, Revie, Stein and Shankly. There’s nothing new in the practice of the pre-match psych-out. The only thing that’s changed is that the attacks have become decidedly more bitter, more malicious, and a great deal more personal.

Suddenly, out of the blue, it all becomes topical again, ahead of El Clasico #5283643964 of the season (or at least that’s what it feels like). Real Madrid host their Catalonian enemies at the Bernabeu in a mouth-watering Champions League tie this evening, and with Manchester United’s easy 2-0 away win at Schalke last night already seeming a distant memory, attention has shifted to the sparring practice between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola in the build-up.

Usually, you’d be forgiven for mistaking these media battles for banter between two school children ahead of a fight behind the bike shed, but there seems to be something more sinister behind this latest spat between La Liga’s most newsworthy managers. For the sake of context, the argument began when ‘The Special One’ leapt on a remark allegedly made by Guardiola (that Mourinho would be ‘super happy’ if Portuguese referee Pedro Proenca was chosen to officiate the match) to start a tirade of his own, labelling the Barcelona coach a rare breed of manager who criticises referees for correct decisions. There is history between these two, obviously. In Guardiola’s presser, he recalled their time working together, but Mourinho brought up the now infamous meeting between his former club, Chelsea, and Guardiola’s Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League semi-final, one marred by bad refereeing, which overshadowed a moment of brilliance from Andres Iniesta.

Still, I seriously doubt that anyone expected what happened next.

Pep Guardiola’s response was…entertaining, to say the least. Press reaction in the aftermath more or less painted the Barcelona coach as having entirely cracked up – far removed from the dignified, mature image he has maintained until now. Long story short, Guardiola gave a succinct, somewhat sarcastic impression of the media fanboy-ism surrounding Jose Mourinho. Barely raising his tone from its usual hushed pitch, and in no uncertain terms, Guardiola lambasted Mourinho’s apparent obsession with dictating the ebb and flow of the press room and claimed that there, he is ‘el puto jefe’ – or ‘the fucking chief’.

It’s hard to imagine that yesterday’s quotes will survive in time along with the great, lunatic rants of our time – with Keegan’s famous, “I’d love it if we beat them. Love it!”, or Benitez’s scripted ‘facts’ back in 2009. But it’s a sure contender for the hall of fame, and certainly bears some similarities with the latter. And not just because of the accent. Another war of words played out under the glare of flashbulbs and in newsprint, Guardiola even alluded to ‘facts’ of the Benitez kind, citing ‘a comparative list of grievances’ of the referee sort.  

But one should always question the objectivity of a media who continuously cite Guardiola and Benitez-esque episodes as ‘outbursts’, ‘rants’ and ‘explosions’ against the psychological geniuses that are Ferguson and Mourinho. The majority of commentators on yesterday’s press conference drama have already declared Mourinho the victor of this psychological spat, and affirmed that Guardiola has allowed the Portuguese coach to get under his skin.

But even Sir Alex, considered by many as the mastermind of modern mind games, sees his tricks backfire from time to time, as they did against none other than Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn in 1995. Still, the Benitez affair proved one thing – hell hath no fury like a Fergie scorned. The famous ‘siege mentality’ did the trick for United in that instance, but whether or not the same can be said for Mourinho and Real Madrid, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

In fact, ever since Madrid’s triumph in the Copa del Rey final, the most recent of this month’s El Clasico quadruple header, the tables have apparently turned in their favour as far as the world’s press are concerned. No longer are they universally viewed as the underdogs, and no longer are the lines of good vs evil so clear cut. Between Barcelona and Real Madrid, there is now a battle on the pitch, a battle between the managers, and a third, more oblique battle between idealogies and values. 

Tactically, Mourinho has finally found a way around Barcelona’s style. But psychologically, they are no longer backed firmly against a wall, alone against a blaugrana-coloured world. The illusion of moral superiority on Barcelona’s part, (one encouraged by Barcelona’s Sandro Rosell on his twitter account ahead of every encounter, for example, before the Copa del Rey final: “We are a set of colours, we are a way of being. #copafcb #fairplay” A little much, don’t you think?) is not so easily accepted by the world at large these days, and outside of their dedicated support, even some of the most enthusiastic bandwagon-jumpers - originally impressed by the club that is ‘more than a club’ - have begun to fall away or lose interest.

Guardiola’s ‘explosion’ has not been viewed in a favourable light by some of the papers that he indirectly blasted in his press conference, although I doubt he would have expected the media, who he implicitly accused of being under the thumb of the Real Madrid manager, to look kindly on him.  In stark contrast, Barcelona’s players and staff supposedly gave the Barcelona legend a standing ovation when he returned to the hotel.

The point that has been overlooked by so many of Guardiola’s critics in the wake of his ‘outburst’ is one that he made very clear; what happens in the press room, or in the newspapers afterwards, simply does not matter to the Barcelona coach, and Mourinho can have his very own ‘off-field Champions trophy’, so long as the real one is heading back to the Nou Camp once more.

Whatever the result tonight you can bet that in post-mortem examinations across the globe after the semi-final is decided, the pre-match press conferences will be brought up again and again. Mourinho may be his own acclaimed one man show in the press room, but who will be 'el puto jefe’ of the pitch?

Whoever wins, it just got a whole lot more interesting.

(They’d both want to save some energy for the final, mind.)