I’m looking for reasons to be cheerful if you’re a Manchester United fan. And I’m thinking… and I’m thinking…

Naah! Its all gone to shit. Lost a game, not such a big deal, happens to the best of them, (though apparently not to Manchester City), second in the league; that’s ok, early days still. But there is darkness on the horizon. Extreme darkness…

Jose Morinho has an interesting personality. Something you could also say about Hitler, Stalin, Jesus Christ and many others. But Jose’s is interesting because he swings between smug, arrogant smiley Dago (can I say that word??? oh, I already did) to psychopathic whingeing excuse-monger on a turn of a centre-forward. Not his, the opponents. He simply cannot handle defeat. Well, strictly, he does handle it by playing his own version of the ‘blame game’. There’s nothing in the middle. No ‘normal’ for Jose, he’s either gloating or self-destructing.

Most famously this happened in his last term at Chelsea when he blamed the team doctor for the loss of a match. She’d gone on the pitch, as is her professional and ethical duty, to tend one of Jose’s princesses, who he trains to treat all contact as seriously as they can get away with, clutching heads, holding faces, waving for medics, and he chose to put the entire match responsibility upon her pretty little head.

And now, following the loss at Huddersfield yesterday, Jose’s at it once more. He’s blaming the ‘really poor attitude’ of the team. Who he then has to work with tomorrow and get them all ‘onside’ and team-spirited before the next match. Which he has now made way more difficult by his statements to the press.

There’s no doubting the man’s talent. But it tends to stall. Anyone can manage a team who are playing brilliantly all the time (does that even exist??) but its the minor hiccups that really define managerial skill. And Jose’s minors explode into majors of his own making, and they seem to get worse each time it happens.

But good managers are hard to come by. Can West Ham afford to sack Slaven Bilic? Who would they replace him with? Does anyone even care? I like him being there, particularly as we’re playing them this week.

My main worry is that Spurs magnificent midweek performance at the Bernabau spotlighted 2 things. That Pochettino is the manager that Real really want, and Harry Kane is an anagram of ‘Christiano Ronaldo’. But only if you’re dyslexic.

Liverpool this afternoon. Gonna watch it with Lila. Big game. Even though it is indeed ‘early days’ in the league, I’ve unilaterally decided that all Spurs matches henceforth are now ‘massssive!!’

Happy Sunday

A xxxx