By José Mourinho's summer of discontent has continued with a press conference which was abrasive even by his standards.
Mourinho demanded "respect, respect, respect" for his three Premier League title wins at Chelsea before leaving the press conference following Manchester United's 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham.
"Do you know what was the result? 3-0, 3-0," Mourinho said, holding up three fingers. "Do you know what this is? 3-0. But it also means three Premierships and I won more Premierships alone than the other 19 managers together. Three for me and two for them two [Pep Guardiola and Manuel Pellegrini]." At that point he got up and began to leave the press conference, still repeating that he deserved "respect".
That wasn't even the half of it. Despite losing 3-0 at home, Mourinho also insisted that the organisation of his team was "so, so, so, so good", that the assembled press was keen to turn it into "the situation of 'let's blame the guy'", and asked for clarity on whether he should be judged on either playing well or winning.
Mourinho also suggested that the fact that large swathes of the crowd had left by the time the final whistle blew was less a comment on his managerial style and success than one on the state of Manchester's transport infrastructure.
"I would do the same, losing 3-0, taking two hours from here to the centre of Manchester, because it’s where I live and I know that after matches it takes two hours, so I would do the same," he said, before going on to goad reporters: "Keep trying, keep trying, keep trying [to ask questions]".
So José Mourinho is absolutely fine thanks for asking. He just wants a bit of respect. That's all! Just a bit of flipping respect. And some new centre-backs. Either way, it's not looking too sunny for Mourinho at the moment. After the game, a camera settled on United chief exec Ed Woodward looking put out, and some on Twitter have suggested that the person to Woodward's left suggests sacking Mourinho. Does Woodward say yes? Does he ignore the idea? Do we need something to fill the time before Thursday's Europa League qualifiers?
