Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho was sent off Saturday during his side’s 0-0 draw with Burnley. He then relocated to the front row in Old Trafford, but that’s actually closer to the pitch than where he already was, so he was then instructed had to move higher up and further away.
He was then treated to watching his team dominate possession 72%-28%, shots 37-7 in shots and 11-1 in shots on goal yet somehow still not score.
It was a brutal opportunity squandered as his side picked up just one point instead of all three. Mourinho now has 15 points through his first ten matches at United. David Moyes had 17 through his first 10, while Louis van Gaal achieved 22 through the same sample size.
The woes don’t stop there for Mourinho. The Football Association awaits his response to the misconduct charges leveled against him due to his comments criticizing the official in the Liverpool match. Additionally he now faces a potential stadium ban due to his rant within the tunnel at the Theatre of Dreams.
Now the FA will have to sift through Clattenburg’s match report and details of Mourinho’s angry rant in the tunnel at half-time on Saturday after United were denied a penalty for Jon Flanagan’s challenge on Matteo Darmian.
It was a borderline call and Clattenburg is said to be standing by his decision not to point to the spot – something he will emphasise in his report.
The FA are believed to have run out of patience with Mourinho who has clashed consistently with authority since he first arrived in the Premier League at Chelsea in 2004.
The feeling is that a financial punishment is no longer enough to rein in the 53-year-old Portuguese coach when it comes to his attitude towards referees.
If the definition of inanity is doing the same exact thing over and over again, yet expecting different results, then the FA would be insane if they continued fining Mourinho and expecting him to change. So it really is in their best interests to take a new course of action with the Portugese.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.