The Warm-Up: Chelsea say Kepa did nothing wrong. Chelsea fine Kepa
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Updated 26/02/2019 at 09:15 GMT
Plus: Brendan wants to go to a place where the last guy mumbled, and Jose just wants some love...
Chelsea's Kepa Arrizabalaga during during Carabao Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley stadium , London, England on 24 Feb 2019
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
It was all a big misunderstanding…but Kepa pays a honking fine anyway
If the Warm-Up was fined a week’s wages for every slightly bumbling misunderstanding that befell us at work, we would be living in the small shed at the bottom of our garden, hoping the people that are renting the house we used to have don’t notice we’re there.
Kepa Arrizabalaga can afford the odd lighter pay packet more than us, but it still seems very slightly strange that he has been penalised a portion of his pay for the incident at Wembley on Sunday, given that it was apparently just one big set of crossed wires, and that nobody had actually done anything wrong.
Still, everyone seems to be friends now. Maurizio Sarri said:
Kepa and I have spoken about the incident. It was a good conversation. There was a misunderstanding yesterday but he realises he made a big mistake in the way he reacted. He has apologised to me, his team-mates and the club. It is up to the club if they want to discipline him according to the club rules, but for me this matter is now closed.
…and Kepa himself said:
Although there was a misunderstanding, on reflection, I made a big mistake with how I handled the situation. I wanted to take the time today to apologise fully and in person to the coach, to Willy, my team-mates and to the club. I have done this and now I want to offer the same apology to the fans. I will learn from this episode and will accept any punishment or discipline the club decides is appropriate
Obviously this was a smart move by Chelsea, taking some of the heat off Sarri to discipline his player, but it does remain an entirely absurd situation that left everyone involved – us included – wondering what on earth we were doing with our lives that this was something we had to pay attention to.
Jose Mourinho just wants to be loved
Jose Mourinho, then. Remember that guy? After a short spell in the mild wilderness, he’s back, back, back, and scouting around for a new gig.
So what are his requirements for a place of work? Convenient location? Comfortable offices? One of those taps that dispenses chilled and boiling hot water at the flick of a switch?
No. It’s love, apparently. Love and empathy. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said:
I don’t want an internal conflict. I want internal empathy. And then your conflict is on Sunday on the pitch when you play against somebody who wants to steal your three points. That’s the moment of the conflict… I don’t know if it is a bad translation from Portuguese to English but focus on these two words, ‘structure’ and ‘empathy’. I want to work with structural empathy. A club is a structure, a complex structure where the manager is an important part of that structure but he is not the structure. I want to work with people that I love. People I want to work with, that I am happy to work with, with whom I share the same ideas. I don’t want to be in a permanent contradiction [conflict] between what I think and the others think.
That last point is, we think you’ll agree, reasonably hilarious. He doesn’t want conflict! All this time he’s just been skipping around with only the purest of intentions in his heart and the reason that there has been scorched earth literally everywhere he’s managed is because…of something else, not sure what.
Still, in a week where Alan Patridge returned to our screens, we did rather enjoy this little nugget, from Jose:
Annabel Croft, what a pundit. Wow, Martin Brundle. I learn a lot when I listen to them.
Brendan for Leicester?
Managerial appointments, like relationships, are often simply a reaction to the one that came before. So it’s not a surprise that, after giving Claude Puel, a man who could barely contain his indifference when presented with a microphone, the old heave-ho, they’re looking to Brendan Rodgers, who never met a camera he didn’t like.
Reports indicate that Rodgers wants back in, having achieved the most he could ever achieve at Celtic, expectations impossible to top, so now craves a return to the Premier League at a club that a couple of years ago achieved the most they’re ever going to achieve by winning the title. Huh.
Still, who are we to judge? Let’s just hope Brendan doesn’t mumble quite as much as the last bloke.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
If only because it’s his birthday and he’s the manager of the club he loves with all of his little baby-faced heart. It’s going pretty well for him at the moment, all told.
Zeros: Port Vale Football Club
What, exactly, are Port Vale doing? On Monday the club released a statement basically whinging about a few refereeing decisions that have gone against them, and solemnly assuring their fans that they would be complaining to the relevant authorities that the mistakes that have been made are simply not good enough. Pretty rich for a club currently third bottom of League Two having lost five of their previous six games, complaining that someone else isn’t doing their job properly.
They even provide examples of the decisions that have apparently derailed their season. There is plenty to unpack here, not least that they lost 4-0 to Lincoln so that penalty (the second goal) probably didn’t have quite the impact they claim, while there’s a three-month gap in the middle there when they apparently didn’t get any bad decisions, which is decent going. And yet in that time they still only won two league games. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
HAT TIP
Jose Mourinho has his notepad open and his attention on a screen showing the Carabao Cup final in a small room in a television studio in west London, where later he will step in front of the cameras to explain to a Spanish audience the tactical approach of the two managers.
Fair play to Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph for getting that Jose interview.
RETRO CORNER
The December 2006 Goal of the Month competition does the rounds every few months it feels like…but there is a decent reason for that.
COMING UP
Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemier Leeeeeeeeeeague. More doses of the good stuff for you this evening as…*checks notes* Cardiff face Everton, Huddersfield play Wolves, Leicester host Brighton and Burnley travel to Newcastle. Hmmm. Yes. Wouldn’t blame you for giving that a swerve, actually.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Jack Lang, who will have watched every second of those games. Twice.
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