Must Read: The reality behind Chelsea Manager's, Jose Mourinho, 'campaign' By Levene

With Jose Mourinho contesting his FA charge – a look at the reality behind his claims of a 'campaign'.

The Chelsea boss was this week back in front of the cameras and Dictaphones after skipping his pre and post-match media duties against Newcastle.

"Don't tell me that you miss me," he said with his usual charm. "It was just a week!" Of course those assembled missed him – he makes this
job very easy sometimes.

He wasn't there to talk about the words that got him hooked on that charge. He didn't really need to. But let's turn the clock back to St Mary's Stadium on 28th December, to examine not the actual claim, but the soft furnishings around it.

"There is a campaign against Chelsea. I don't know why there is this campaign and I do not care."

Firstly, be aware that all press conferences are
rehearsed.

Pre-match, post-match, whenever – the Chelsea
manager, whoever he happens to be at the time, will talk through some lines to take with the club media team beforehand and agree largely what will be said.

Which is not to say that a manager will not decide to ski off piste at some point with his press officer sat reddening next to him – as we recently saw with Steve Bruce's ill-advised (and factually incorrect) cri de coeur on the subject of Ched Evans.

But it is highly improbable that a subject such as the 'campaign' raised by Mourinho at Southampton, an unusual word that Mourinho has never before used, could have been dreamed up on the spot.

Not a 'conspiracy' or a 'coalition', either of which could have been thrown out in a moment of passion to imply skulduggery by those in power.

No, a 'campaign' – carefully chosen as a word that implies a massed form of action by parties unknown or unstated. And that is the crux of Mourinho's method – always choosing words and actions carefully to achieve a desired outcome.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that everything Mourinho does, from the side of the bed he steps out of in the morning, to the way he stirs his Horlicks nightcap before lights out, is done with an intended consequence.

And looking at his record of public deflection, which is what we are talking about here, he clearly has a tariff set down in precedent. When his team gets a result that is below expectations –he deflects attention from them by mildly grumbling, and blaming some newsworthy external factor. When his team loses, he cranks things up a notch – often drawing the back page eyes towards poor sportsmanship or refereeing. And when his team loses badly, goes out of a competition, or looks like being knocked off the top of the table – he creates an FA charge for himself.

Many will say there is good cause behind the 'campaign' diatribe – and there is clear evidence that some in the media do overly focus on Chelsea's misdemeanours in a way they don't scrutinise those of other teams.

But justification is no defence in the eyes of the FA. Nor is the fact that he didn't point the finger at the refs –because there was plenty in his words for Ashley Cole's favourite bunch to get him on some form of technicality. (Essentially, by suggesting refs are capable of bowing to outside influence, he breaks their rules).
But none of that really matters.

Mourinho has got exactly what he wanted all along –pundits are talking about it, you are reading about it, and he will see any fine that follows (paltry in the face of his £8.5m salary) as being money well spent. Hey – it's cheaper than placing an ad on the back page.

And few ended up talking about a poor run of form, which now seems to have been turned around.

Mourinho was certainly right about one thing – there is a campaign, of sorts, going on here. And he will keep on masterminding it as long as it continues to get the results he wants.

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