Mour Or Less
‘THE one thing that the papers can agree about this morning is that Porto boss Jose Mourinho is the man to take over from Claudio Ranieri at Stamford Bridge next season.
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What theyre not in agreement about is how much he will get paid or who his first signings will be.
The Express, for instance, says he has signed a four-year deal worth £10m to manage Chelsea, while its sister paper comes up with a figure of £20m.
Which just goes to show two things – that the papers havent got a clue what theyre taking about and that, whoevers right, Mourinho will get paid an absurd amount of money.
The Mail says Mourinhos first signing as manager with be French striker David Trezeguet from Juventus for £14.3m, while the Sun reckons it will be Brazilian-born winger Deco Souza from Porto.
Another thing that the papers do agree about, however, is that many of Ranieris big-name signings were not exactly value for money.
For instance, the Sun calculates that Juan Sebastian Veron has cost £1.4m for every match he has played; and the Mail (which takes into account wags as well) says that works out at £19,133 per minute on the pitch more than Bill Gates earns.
Best value signing so far has been Glen Johnson, the former West Ham right back, who has cost a mere £3,068 per minute on the pitch so far.
One man Mourinho should look at bringing to London is Didier Drogba, the Marseille forward whose to goals last night dumped Newcastle out of the Uefa Cup.
If he wants confirmation of Drogbas class, he should phone up his old mate, Sir Bobby Robson the Star reveals that Mourinho once acted as the Newcastle bosss translator.
To cricket and the Express reports that Surrey were knocked out of the C&G Trophy yesterday by lowly Ireland, while Devon also dumped Leicestershire out of the competition.
But there is a decidedly mixed reaction to Englands one-day performances in the West Indies.
The Express says that, of the 17 players taken on tour this winter, there have been two definite pluses Andrew Strauss, who will soon be in the Test squad, and Steve Harmison.
Vikram Solanki and Anthony McGrath appear to have been jettisoned, while serious doubts remain over Ian Blackwell and Rikki Clarke.
With 14 one-dayers to be played this summer, we should know a lot more by the end of September.’
Posted: 7th, May 2004 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
