228 Clough the Second? Part 2 (1/2)
Chapter 228: Clough the Second? Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The reporter from BBC smiled at the camera and said, ”Let's see what José Mourinho has to say.”
José Mourinho, who had accepted the interview from the hotel he was staying at, appeared on the screen. He wore his signature black coat and looked quite cool.
”Clough? I know. His compliments made me very happy. But, just like Tony, I don't want to be anyone's successor. I hate the news you've been stirring up about ”the fight between Clough's successors.” I think that the world would be more peaceful if you could do something more useful with your time. On another note, I think that comparing a manager who has led a team to become UEFA champions to one who has not achieved anything is unfair to the latter.”
Tang En was unfriendly to José Mourinho, but Mourinho was similarly unrelenting. While appearing to be sympathetic to Tony, who had been compared to a successful coach like him, he was in fact just mocking Tony Twain's lack of achievements as a manager.
David Kerslake, who was in front of the television, glanced at Tang En as if keen on knowing his reaction. But Tang En did not do anything except to switch it off, telling Kerslake, ”Alright, David. Let us keep researching Chelsea…”
Although Tony appeared calm, the media did not believe it. Before José Mourinho's arrival in the UK, the media was hoping for Tony to help increase the sales of the newspapers. Later, after Mourinho came to England with his new-found fame as the manager of the champions of UEFA, he had momentarily attracted everyone's attention. His loud-mouthed and showy character turned him into the media's pet. Now that the two managers, both with extreme characters, had met, how could things be calm and tranquil without any incidents?
This was only the prelude to their war of words.
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The media's assumptions were quite accurate. Tang En, of course, would not allow someone to look down on him. Not even if the person was a one-time UEFA Champion manager like José Mourinho, and not even if Tang En, as a football fan, liked the manager's strong character. Now that they were opponents, he was not about to show his adoration.
Either way, what did Tang En have to adore José Mourinho for? In the past, it was because he was a football fan. Seeing a manager with an unusual character made him seem great. Now that Tang En himself had become quite a character of a manager, he did not need to look to anyone else. He could just adore himself.
On the second day before the match, when Tang En was accepting interviews from reporters, many raised the topic of José Mourinho's remarks and wanted to hear Tony's retaliation. He did not disappoint them. He knew that the reporters wanted to hear something sensational from him. At the same time, he was making use of them.
”Naturally, in the eyes of a manager of a UEFA Champions team, a mere EFL championship is as unremarkable as air. We have to understand the feelings of a Champion Manager, who has eaten such a luxurious dinner that he's become contemptuous of a normal home-cooked meal. So, before the next feast, a Champion Manager would surely not have any plain food. I hope he won't starve before getting to his second feast.”
Reporters who were interviewing José Mourinho mentioned this to him. Mourinho's reply was exquisite. ”Country bumpkins always think that nobles have great feasts. But to the nobles themselves, it really was just a home-cooked meal.”
The official match had not even begun, yet the managers from both sides were already locked in a tongue-lashing battle so intense it was white hot. This brought the watching media and public immense satisfaction. Clough's passing was a sorrowful event for English football. But watching the two young managers go toe-to-toe with each other, the people felt they would not be bored, even with Clough's departure.