Jose Mourinho has told Jurgen Klopp that his anger regarding football’s scheduling this year will be in vain.
Liverpool’s manager has consistently complained this year that football’s various governing bodies are completely ignoring player welfare – furious that the Premier League is the only major league in Europe that hasn’t adopted the five sub rule – and baffled that broadcasters can schedule teams who play on Wednesday in the Champions League in the early Saturday kick-off.
Mourinho though has stated that having first coached in England 16 years ago, and being totally acquainted to its ways, Klopp is shouting into thin air.
“Klopp arrived by 2015,” the Tottenham Hotspur manager said, cited in the Echo.
“I arrived in 2004 so what he knows from 2015, I know since 2004. And nothing changes. We have to adapt to it and that’s the way it is.”
Sadly, we think Mourinho might be right. For some reason, any change in football is regarded with scepticism in this country and leaves many scared and refusing to listen to reason.
The five subs rule this season, or lack of, is the best example of that – especially given the insane number of muscle injuries picked up every week by all 20 Premier League teams.
Klopp though will continue to fight for what he believes in. This is why he’s a brilliant man and a brilliant manager.
And he’s nearly always on the right side of history.