{"id":554,"date":"2026-10-11T18:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T18:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=554"},"modified":"2026-10-11T18:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T18:31:07","slug":"catalan-attack-on-mourinho-hes-playing-the-victim-and-his-cure-for-vinicius-has-failed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=554","title":{"rendered":"Catalan Attack on Mourinho: “He’s playing the victim… and his cure for Vinicius has failed”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mourinho refused to attend the press conference<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Catalan press has continued its onslaught against Portuguese manager Jos\u00e9 Mourinho following his absence from the post-match press conference after Real Madrid’s 1-0 win yesterday, Saturday\u2014a match marked by the red card shown to Los Merengues star Vinicius Junior for pulling opponent Nathan Saliba by the hair.<\/p>\n

Writing in Sport, Sergio R. Vi\u00f1as argues that the “conciliatory, peaceful, and calm” Jos\u00e9 Mourinho who seemed to arrive at Real Madrid has “completely vanished” in less than two months since the start of the season. Just nine matches were enough for the Portuguese coach to pull out “the best catalog of victimhood tools” in press conferences, according to the article.<\/p>\n

Mourinho justified his absence by expressing a desire to be on the bench for the upcoming matches against Sevilla and Barcelona. In the author’s view, this means he “felt powerless to control his anger over refereeing performances” and chose silence out of fear of facing sanctions for what he might say.<\/p>\n

The match also witnessed chants from the Real Madrid stands such as “Negreira is still refereeing,” “Corruption in the federation,” and “Tebas, leave now.”<\/p>\n

The author notes that the Bernab\u00e9u is rarely seen “entertaining itself, in the absence of good football, with conspiracy theories”\u2014a narrative he considers “convenient for hiding what is essential”: Real Madrid under Mourinho “still hasn’t taken off” and remains “stuck in the shortcomings carried over from the previous two seasons.”<\/p>\n

Vinicius’s Red Card<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vinicius Junior’s expulsion was the “epicenter of the noise” in the match, described by Vi\u00f1as as a “very clear red card” according to the regulations.<\/p>\n

The report explained that Vinicius was sent off “for pulling an opponent’s hair while the ball was in play and without the ball being contested between them.” The author notes that this wording guarantees a suspension of at least two matches\u2014meaning he will miss El Cl\u00e1sico at Camp Nou in two weeks\u2014and the ban could even be extended due to the “aggressive attitude” noted by the referee.<\/p>\n

Vi\u00f1as believes Vinicius’s problem goes beyond his “irresponsible gesture.” The club is reportedly hiding its concern over his physical condition, as he remains “very far from his known level,” especially after signing a “multimillion-dollar renewal” running until 2032.<\/p>\n

The writer added that the white supporters greeted Vinicius with whistles and jeers when he entered the pitch, because “something broke between the Bernab\u00e9u and the Brazilian last season, and it doesn’t look like an easy wound to heal.”<\/p>\n

He concluded that the reaction of his teammates and Mourinho\u2014who formed a large circle to embrace him after a goal that was ultimately disallowed\u2014demonstrated “a collective will to pamper Vinicius and recover his best version,” which is a “cure that, so far, has failed,” according to the author.<\/p>\n

By Mohamed almou<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mourinho refused to attend the press conference The Catalan press has continued its onslaught against Portuguese manager Jos\u00e9 Mourinho following his absence from the post-match press conference after Real Madrid’s 1-0 win yesterday, Saturday\u2014a match marked by the red card shown to Los Merengues star Vinicius Junior for pulling opponent Nathan Saliba by the hair. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}