Lost in Translation

There have been many attempts to account for Barcelona’s elimination of Chelsea from this season’s Champions League competition, but according to reports they are all wide of the mark.

Apparently, the Special One himself has come up with the reason – it’s all Peter Kenyon’s fault, because he hasn’t managed to get Chelsea admitted to the elite G14 group of Europe’s top clubs.

Even Kenyon himself, who does not have the reputation of being a modest man, may be surprised to learn that he is capable of exerting such a powerful influence on the outcome of an important tie when he hasn’t been given any coaching or managerial responsibilities.

After all, in the second leg it was not Kenyon who selected Drogba in preference to Hernan Crespo. Not Kenyon who asked Arjen Robben to do a job which Eidur Gudjohnsen could have done infinitely better. Not Kenyon who put lumbering Robert Huth on up front in the twilight of the game when he had Wright-Phillips on the bench.

It is ironic that as time goes by, we become increasingly aware of limitations in the vocabulary of a man whose career in top class football began with the role of interpreter. Having heard some months ago that the word ‘entertainment’ does not form part of Mourinho’s football vocabulary (as Roman Abramovic has discovered to his cost) we now learn that he is evidently incapable, in any circumstances, of uttering the simple English sentence – “I’m sorry, I made a mistake”.

Possibly because this particular sentence demands a degree of humility which he has, as yet, been unable to acquire