Mourinho choking on Ranieri's fumes


Ian Hawkey
  • English
  • Arabic

Claudio Ranieri ought to be used to seeing Jose Mourinho in his rear-view mirror. He started seeing his face looming there some time ago. It would exaggerate the circumstances of April and May 2004 to say that was when the self-styled "Special One" began stalking Ranieri, but it must at times have felt like something that sinister to the older of the two coaches.

Ranieri at that stage was chasing the English Premier League title with Chelsea, and it would be a vain pursuit of the prize. Ranieri's final months in London were spent juggling that challenge, overseeing a surprise defeat in the semi-final of the Champions League, and at the same time knowing his players knew he was shortly to be sacked. Mourinho duly followed Ranieri into the palace of Roman Abramovich's wealth, anointed for the role long before Ranieri officially departed.

Mourinho's attitude to Ranieri since has been graceless, at least publicly. Amid the endless vaunting of his own achievements in delivering Chelsea their first league for almost 50 years would be sly references to how much better he had done at Stamford Bridge than his immediate predecessor. The rest is history. English fans still remembered Ranieri as a likeable sort, but much of English football became transfixed by the darker plotlines given to it almost each week by Mourinho.

Last season, with Mourinho's touchdown on the runway of Italian football, Ranieri was obliged to take a position in Mourinho's rear-view mirror. Ranieri was by then in charge of the promoted Juventus, his third job since departing London; Mourinho had been handed the task of guiding the champions, Inter Milan. The Portuguese coach would often send messages to Ranieri through the media. They were drawn from a schoolyard book of insults. Ranieri, he reminded anybody who cared to listen, had struggled to speak English as fluently after four years at Chelsea as Mourinho managed within a few months. Ranieri, Mourinho also pointed out, had won no league titles even though "he is nearly 70", whereas Mourinho had triumphed in Portugal, with Porto, and in the Premier League. The wheels fell off in the spring and Ranieri was sacked. Mourinho won the title while picking arguments with other enemies.

So when Ranieri answered the question, late on Sunday, 'How are you feeling?', he reached back to some of that history. "Well," he smiled, "I'm feeling better than a year ago." This morning, with five matches left of the 2009/10 season, his Roma team are top of the table, with Mourinho's Inter in their rear-view mirror. It has been a magnificent pursuit. Roma approached their 2-1 win over Atalanta on Sunday at the Stadio Olimpico desperate to exploit Inter's 2-2 draw at Fiorentina the evening before. They scored both their goals within the first half-hour and held on to their lead through some tense later moments after Simone Tiribocchi pulled a goal back for Atalanta for their fifth successive victory and their 23rd game without defeat in the Italian top-flight.

Rewind to the back of that unbeaten run and you get to the end of October 2009, when Roma had gathered a mere 11 points from their first 10 matches. Ranieri had taken over after two defeats in Roma's first pair of games of the campaign - and trailed Inter by a full 14 points. At that stage, Mourinho could barely glimpse his old sparring partner in his rear-view mirror. Now Mourinho chokes on Roma's exhaust fumes.

"There are tough games to come, but the scudetto is in our hands now," beamed Ranieri. sports@thenational.ae

MATCH INFO

UAE Division 1

Abu Dhabi Harlequins 12-24 Abu Dhabi Saracens

Pad Man

Dir: R Balki

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte

Three-and-a-half stars

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TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

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THE 12 BREAKAWAY CLUBS

England

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur

Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus

Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid

Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.

A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.

Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.

A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.

On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.

The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.

Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.

The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later. 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog

Favourite food: Tabbouleh, greek salad and sushi

Favourite TV show: That 70s Show

Favourite animal: Ferrets, they are smart, sensitive, playful and loving

Favourite holiday destination: Seychelles, my resolution for 2020 is to visit as many spiritual retreats and animal shelters across the world as I can

Name of first pet: Eddy, a Persian cat that showed up at our home

Favourite dog breed: I love them all - if I had to pick Yorkshire terrier for small dogs and St Bernard's for big

Five%20calorie-packed%20Ramadan%20drinks
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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

 

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

Roll%20of%20Honour%2C%20men%E2%80%99s%20domestic%20rugby%20season
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

Score

New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs 

New Zealand win by 47 runs

New Zealand lead three-match ODI series 1-0

Next match: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi, Friday

Company profile

Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space

Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)

Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)

Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi 

Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution) 

Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space  

Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019

THE BIO

Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist

Age: 78

Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”

Hobbies: his work  - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”

Other hobbies: football

Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club

 

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg

Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).

Second leg

Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm

Games on BeIN Sports

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013