interesting piece
Some say football is all about trophies. Jose Mourinho wins them for fun, but his medals go in the crowd and his celebrations rarely last more than two minutes before he heads off in a new direction, for a new challenge. What made this season so special for him was not the Inter treble in and of itself, but the battles he won off the pitch in capturing those three trophies.
He couldn't wait to leave Italy - he said himself that they don't like him, and he doesn't like them - yet leaving without having been forced out would be a failure, and Jose doesn't do failure. Winning it all, and beating an unbelievable Barcelona on the way to a Champions League triumph in the stadium of his new club, that is what made the man cry. It was just too perfect.
Ten days later and just over 800 miles east of Madrid, a smart man would not bet against a tear being shed on a Sardinian hotel pillow in Rafael Benitez's room last Wednesday. That afternoon, Fabio Capello - Inter president Massimo Moratti's public choice to succeed Mourinho - complied with the FA and removed the escape clause within his contract that would have allowed him to leave the England job after the World Cup. By that evening, Rafa had already talked his way out of Anfield.
Yes, the same Rafa whom Moratti had described as ungettable mere days before, because of his contract with Liverpool. That beautiful, five-year contract signed in 2009 running until 2014 that made him the undisputed Alpha Dog of Anfield. That contract that promised him such an embarrassment of riches (and embarrassment is just the feeling Tom Hicks and George Gillett are living with currently) were it to be terminated.
He was unsackable, a situation made all the more hilarious after he delivered a season that was indisputably and universally sack-worthy. And despite his clear disillusionment with the backhandedness of the boardroom antics at the club, he knew he couldn't leave. He, like Mourinho, couldn't let the enemy win. And he surely couldn't let all that money go down the drain, either.
Escape Route | Moratti aided Rafa's exit
And then the powerful Italian gentleman steeped in mysterious and awe-inspiring family history made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Now Rafa had genuine bargaining power. He marched to the nearest telephone and demanded that interim chairman Martin Broughton gave him guarantees of summer transfer budget he knew would not be forthcoming. And when it wasn't, an agreement was reached in double-quick time and his contract was mutually terminated - with around £6m landing in his pocket - by Thursday afternoon.
He got the money from the settlement, the full support of fans and media, and he got a dream job with plenty of money and a league title on offer that would actually be harder to lose. All this, while on holiday, following a season of unprecedented failure in the major competitions on offer. It was the anti-treble, and it was spectacular.
Inter are getting a smart man. A touch boring, a trifle strange and more than a little frustrating, but he will always find a way to win. Even when he loses.
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