Viní, vidi, vilification

José Mourinho: against provoking opposition fans.

- Jonathan Liew

José Mourinho: in favour of restrained celebrations. José Mourinho, once of the poke-in-the-eye, sprint-down-the-touchline, accost-the-referee-in-the-car-park school of footballing expression: now apparently very big on showing respect to the game. Well, it seems like we've all been on a journey here. "I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was Black," Mourinho recounted when asked about his conversation with Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday night. "This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.

And doubtless these words will have been a profound source of comfort to Vinícius in his lowest moment, having been insulted on the pitch by an opposition player in a Champions League playoff.

After all who among us, having been racially abused in a public place, has not turned to the memory of Eusébio, and felt all that residual resentment and ambient anger subside in an instant? "A stadium where Vinícius plays, something happens, always," Mourinho said after Benfica's 1-0 defeat by Real Madrid. And remember: this guy is a master communicator, right? A man who chooses his words with precision and a brilliant strategic mind, right? That's why he's "box office". That's why, a decade after he was objectively good, so many want him back in the Premier League.