Angry Jose Mourinho accuses Manchester City of lacking class over his portrayal in new Amazon documentary
Mourinho is labelled ‘defensive’ and has his style described as ‘parking the bus’, but in response he brought up the t-shirts that City had made last season to celebrate a win they failed to secure
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Your support makes all the difference.An angry Jose Mourinho has reacted to his portrayal in a recently released documentary about Manchester City and accused his rivals of lacking class.
The eight-part series, produced by streaming service Amazon and launched late last week, covers Pep Guardiola’s efforts in leading City to last season’s title in such exhilarating fashion.
But it features Mourinho and his Manchester United side extensively in the first episode.
That led Mourinho to suggest, jokingly, that he should claim royalties from City due to his repeated appearances in the 45-minute programme.
“I haven’t seen it but I know a few things about the movie,” said Mourinho.
“My reaction is if you are a rich club you can buy top players, you cannot buy class. That is my first reaction.
“The second reaction is because I am in the movie I could ask for some royalties. But if they send me one of the shirts they had in the tunnel when we played there, the shirts that were saying ‘We did it on derby day.’ If they send me one of these shirts, I give up about the royalties.”
Mourinho was referencing the second Manchester derby of last season, in early April, when victory for City would have made the Premier League title a mathematical certainty.
Expecting that outcome, City printed t-shirts in advance celebrating the title – which eventually came two weeks later when Mourinho lost at home to West Brom – only to have to dispose of the souvenirs when United came back from two goals down to win 3-2.
Humorous as Mourinho’s response may have been, the manner in which he appears in the documentary has clearly hit a raw nerve.
City have claimed that they had no editorial control over Amazon, who spent most of last season embedded with the club for long periods, apart from on matters of sensitive personal or commercial information.
But in the first episode, featuring the Old Trafford derby which City won impressively 2-1, the narrator, Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley, describes the meeting between Mourinho and his old rival Pep Guardiola.
“It is Guardiola versus Mourinho once more,” says Kingsley. “Possession versus defence; attacking football versus ‘park-the-bus’”
There are also scenes of City supporters chanting “Park the bus” during the derby, as well as Mourinho’s post-match press briefing at Old Trafford in which he claims, unconvincingly, that his team had not just been outplayed by Guardiola’s.
That first episode also focuses on City’s brilliant playmaker Kevin De Bruyne and the fact that he was allowed to leave Chelsea when Mourinho was in charge at Stamford Bridge.
There is even a clip from a 2013 Champions League press conference in which Mourinho is quizzed about De Bruyne. The then-Chelsea manager criticises the Belgian for a recent poor showing in a League Cup tie with Swindon and bad training performances before storming out in anger.
Asked whether that clip, in particular, had annoyed him, Mourinho had another ready quip.
“You know, a movie without me doesn’t sell much,” said Mourinho. “I needed to be (in) there.”
He added: "You can have a fantastic movie while respecting others. You don't need to be disrespectful to have a fantastic movie.
Coincidentally, the documentary – entitled “All or Nothing” – was premiered on the day that De Bruyne was injured in training, a knee ligament problem that will sideline him for three months.
Mourinho, however, does not expect the defending champions to suffer much due to the Belgian’s absence.
“I think they have a fantastic squad,” he said. “De Bruyne is a fantastic player, but for him to be out a few weeks, I don’t think it’s a drama for them.
“They won the Community Shield and at the Emirates without De Bruyne. They are a fantastic team and it’s not a drama for them to lose a player for a few weeks.”
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