Is Mourinho The New Keegan?

Filed in archive Premiership 2006/7 on December 24, 2006

Fergie suggested Mourinho should apologize a second time after Man Utd rolled Aston Villa over 3-0.

"Perhaps it shows that we shouldn't believe Jose Mourinho. He said Chelsea would be top at Christmas and they are not," said the Scot. "He has to apologise after lying about an Everton player this week. Perhaps he should be apologising again."

Presumably Fergie's tongue was so far in his cheek it nearly burst through the other side, but looks like this is a return to old fashioned mind games, the fun to watch type that only happen when there's a genuine title race afoot.

But can Fergie turn the cool as ice Mourinho into his Kevin Keegan style bee-atch? The type of prodding Fergie's doing to the Chelsea boss now is reminiscent of the prodding he gave Keegan when he suggested teams tried harder against his United than Keggy's. Not long after, the Newcastle boss donned those big Sky Sports headphones and made a fool of himself for our enjoyment.

Will be interesting to see if Mourinho cracks. The smart moneys says no. Anyone with such a dapper coat and scarf combo will probably be too sophisticated to fall into the same trap as double K, but he hasn't really been under pressure until now, and the Andy Johnson comment suggests there might be a volcano of madness just waiting to erupt all over Sky Sports (or BBC if we're lucky).