We’ve all seen that Jose Mourinho has never been afraid to mince his words and he’ll always look to sow the seeds of blame somewhere else in the future, but he might have taken it too far this time.
Gareth Bale’s fitness will be a concern because he’s had injury issues for years, and he’s a key player for Wales so you imagine that they will want him on the pitch as much as possible.
There’s an interesting situation where Arsenal coach Albert Stuivenberg is also part of the Wales staff, and Mourinho appears to be suggesting that he might not act in the best interests of the player.
Some of his comments were picked up by the Guardian, and they’re pretty extraordinary:
“The fact that one of the coaches is an Arsenal coach does not make me very comfortable. Honestly, it doesn’t make me very comfortable. National team matches should have coaches that work exclusively for them, not coaches who work for other clubs.”
It’s worth pointing out that there are numerous examples of coaches and managers who work for a club and a country, and there’s no example of anyone acting in a manner that could harm the players.
Mourinho is essentially questioning the professionalism of Stuivenberg in a way that suggests he might deliberately sabotage Bale’s career to benefit Arsenal against Spurs, and it’s a pretty disgusting thing to do.
It will be interesting to see if there’s any fall out from this.
He’s right to be concerned.