Two weeks later, Real Madrid<\/a> went down 2-1 to Atletico in the Madrid derby<\/a>, which left them trailing a rampant Bar\u00e7a<\/a> by six points in the league, a sizeable gap before leaves began falling from the trees.<\/p>\n Backed into a corner, the Real Madrid manager came out swinging. We saw the old Mourinho. Has he ever gone away? <\/p>\n During summer, when Mourinho (63) was unveiled as head coach \u2013 the fourth in a little over a year to sit in the electric chair at Real \u2013 there was talk about how he had mellowed in old age.<\/p>\n Yet only last year he got a fine and a three-match ban in Turkey for pinching rival coach Okan Buruk\u2019s nose after an Istanbul derby. Buruk, theatrically, fell to the ground, holding his face as though his nose had been hacked off. A leopard cannot change its spots. Mourinho said as much during an unguarded moment in August, admitting: \u201cI can\u2019t be what I am not.\u201d<\/p>\n In the post-match press conference after defeat to Diego Simeone\u2019s Atletico, Mourinho paused for what seemed an eternity before answering the first question. His arms were folded. He sat directly behind a small LG monitor. Its brand slogan caught the eye. The South Korean electronics company\u2019s exhortation, \u201cLife\u2019s Good\u201d, was completely at odds with Mourinho\u2019s mood. Mourinho was sullen. He seemed tired. He spoke slowly and deliberately.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can skip the press conference because the story of the game is here,\u201d he said, raising up a coloured printout of two over-the-top tackles on his players during the game, one by Cuti Romero on Jude Bellingham, the other by Kang-in Lee on Fede Valverde. These were fouls that warranted \u201cclear\u201d red cards in Mourinho\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n Instead, it was Real who were reduced to 10 men in the game\u2019s decisive moment. A gormless challenge by centre back Dean Huijsen on Atletico\u2019s Giuliano Simeone, early in the second half, led to a penalty and Atletico\u2019s opening goal.<\/p>\n Mourinho sensed there were unseen forces acting against him. \u201cIt is all very strange,\u201d he said, inviting us into the haunted house of his mind, adding mysteriously: \u201cA week before, it was already known who the referee was.\u201d<\/p>\n The fault lay not with the referee, though, he said. The referee was not personally to blame. Mourinho felt sorry for him: \u201cA 41-year-old referee who isn\u2019t even an international. The poor guy came here, and he couldn\u2019t handle the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Mourinho then had a dig at the video assistant referee<\/a>, \u201cMr Trujillo\u201d. He was extremely knowledgeable on his track record, listing several matches in which Daniel Jes\u00fas Trujillo Su\u00e1rez ruled against Real Madrid in VAR decisions, including a Copa del Rey tie against Real Sociedad and matches against Osasuna and Girona.<\/p>\n Not to mention, Mourinho said, VAR decisions that went in favour of Atletico and Bar\u00e7a in other games, citing specific examples. He had his homework done. The joke doing the rounds, especially given the dramatic flourish with the printout, was that Mourinho prepared better for the press conference, excuses at hand, than he did for the match.<\/p>\n Mourinho was helped by Real\u2019s communications department, which cranked a mobile printer into action at Atletico\u2019s stadium minutes after the final whistle \u2013 using images taken from the sports newspaper Marca\u2019s Instagram account \u2013 so Mourinho could be armed before facing the world\u2019s media. The following day Catalan newspaper Sport carried a front-page photo of Mourinho with the headline \u201cUnhinged\u201d.<\/p>\n Mourinho had left Real in 2013 after three scorched-earth years in charge. It was the height of the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo rivalry, both players achieving feats unseen in living memory. In the dugouts, Mourinho\u2019s anti-Bar\u00e7a tactics were so abrasive that it left his rival, Pep Guardiola, burnt out and forced into a year\u2019s sabbatical in New York. Now Mourinho has returned to Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before finishing his speech, Mourinho said he had been naive: \u201cI thought I\u2019d find a league different from the one I left. They told me, \u2018No,\u2019 and they explained why it wasn\u2019t different from the league I left years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n No one is better at relaying Real\u2019s party line than Mourinho. It\u2019s a big part of the reason he was summoned from the wilderness, more than a decade after he\u2019d won his last league title (at Chelsea in 2015), by Real\u2019s embattled president Florentino P\u00e9rez, a man also prone to bouts of paranoia. It\u2019s why Mourinho is the only Real Madrid coach to have his name serenaded at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium during matches.<\/p>\n Mourinho lacks some of the sparkle since last he managed Madrid. He has been sleeping at Valdebebas, the club\u2019s training ground. He looks increasingly dishevelled. Gone is the \u20ac26,000 grey Giorgio Armani overcoat. Now he wears mostly crumpled polo shirts or a training top. His smouldering good looks have departed him. Often, he is unshaven or sporting a grey beard.<\/p>\n He has, however, lost none of his deviousness. During the recent, three-week international break he carried on his \u201cvictimismo\u201d communications strategy, stoking the fires about an anti-Real Madrid refereeing conspiracy in La Liga, airing, for the first time in public since his Second Coming, the explosive name \u201cNegreira\u201d, a reference to former senior Spanish refereeing official Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.<\/p>\n The Negreira case<\/a> dates to 2023 when the radio station Cadena Ser broke the story about an investigation by the Spanish tax authority into filings by Negreira companies, including payments from Bar\u00e7a, over the period 2001 to 2018, totalling \u20ac8.4 million.<\/p>\n What was expected in return for these generous payments to a vice-president of Spain\u2019s referring association? According to leaked testimony given by Negreira to the Spanish Tax Authority, they were \u201cto make sure no refereeing decisions were made against them, which is to say, for everything to be neutral\u201d.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a claim innocence, maintaining the club had hired Negreira to provide reports \u201crelated to professional refereeing\u201d. Former coaches Luis Enrique (2014-2017) and Ernesto Valverde (2017-2020) have both testified they were unaware such refereeing reports existed. The investigation is continuing.<\/p>\n Mourinho has his own thoughts about the saga. While giving an interview to Corriere dello Sport, the Italian sports newspaper, earlier in the month, he hinted he always suspected the success of Guardiola\u2019s immortal Bar\u00e7a team was helped by an invisible hand: \u201cI arrived at Real Madrid during prime Negreira years. I remember no one knew about it, but we felt and lived it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mourinho\u2019s tactics \u2013 causing distraction and playing the victim \u2013 are working to a point. After a recent, edgy 1-0 victory over Villarreal in La Liga \u2013 in which Real\u2019s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior was sent off \u2013 Mourinho and his coaching staff spent the game haranguing the ref and the fourth official. Afterwards, he picked up a fine for refusing to do the game\u2019s post-match press conference.<\/p>\n Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> and Vini jnr have been in the crosshairs with Real\u2019s fans. At the Bernab\u00e9u during the Villarreal game, though, fans took to whistling the referee instead of their two privileged, lacklustre stars. There is less talk in Spain about Mourinho\u2019s underperforming team than about referees and alleged conspiracies.<\/p>\n Javier Tebas, La Liga\u2019s president, has weighed into the arguments with both feet. In a salty social media post, Tebas compared Real\u2019s communications tactics to those of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. Real Madrid called on him to resign. Tebas has refused, claiming he won\u2019t bow to Real and their \u201clapdogs\u201d in the media.<\/p>\n Mourinho has a tricky hand to play. The pressure is huge. At his disposal, he has the most talented squad in world football, including Mbapp\u00e9, a resurgent Bellingham, the gifted Arda G\u00fcler and teenage sensation Yan Diomande, reportedly the most expensive player in Real\u2019s history.<\/p>\n But the pieces of the jigsaw aren\u2019t fitting together \u2013 yet. Since the departure of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, Real lack control in midfield. This has been made more glaringly apparent since the club bungled the signing of Spain\u2019s midfield general Rodri during the summer.<\/p>\n Rodri has joined ancient rivals Bar\u00e7a instead. Bar\u00e7a are averaging more than four goals a game. All eyes will be on Mourinho as his men take on Bar\u00e7a at the Camp Nou on Sunday. If Bar\u00e7a were to administer a heavy defeat and open an insurmountable nine-point gap in the title race then Mourinho\u2019s bench would begin to tremble.<\/p>\n Trent Alexander-Arnold\u2019s Spanish nightmare<\/p>\n Two years ago, Trent Alexander-Arnold<\/a> told Sky Sports in an interview how he wanted to win the Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a> award. At the time, it seemed an audacious thing to say. Now it feels even more ridiculous.<\/p>\n After nine, trophy-laden seasons at Liverpool, his boyhood club, where he was a captain-in-waiting, Alexander-Arnold decided to hit out for Spain. It\u2019s been a disastrous move. His career is dead ending. He has just turned 28. During the summer, he missed out on the World Cup finals, failing to make Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England squad.<\/p>\n![\"José](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/JFSIWTMQEBB2LDWGOG3EL4MTIA.jpg\")
Jos\u00e9 Mourinho has an exchange of views with the referee during the home game against Villarreal this month. Photograph: Denis Doyle\/Getty <\/p>\n![\"José](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LCLHRZEPTBELVHUV2VKNDLDNXY.jpg\")
Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, during his first spell as Real manager, shakes hands with Pep Guardiola, then coach of Barcelona. Photograph: Alex Livesey\/Getty <\/p>\n![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KGUHXLIK3VAJXL5ASS3NF3U7X4.jpg\")
Jose Mourinho has been favouring new signing Denzel Dumfries, left, as a right back. Photograph: Christian Bruna\/Getty <\/p>\n![\"Barcelona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/YQ2PK4G5LZAF3KMZYIX5ZWG56M.jpg\")
Barcelona players leave Real star Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior in no doubt about their feelings during May’s El Cl\u00e1sico. Photograph: Javier Borrego\/Getty <\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SUXRJSG5UYHSDSQEZOQBF5MJSM.jpg\")
Former Liverpool standout player Trent Alexander-Arnold is finding it tough at Real. Photograph: Oscar Del Pozo\/Getty <\/p>\n