El Clásico is coming up… Tomorrow at 10:00 p.m.
José Mourinho will once again be there as Real Madrid’s coach, and Spanish journalists asked him to talk about the match at the customary press conference held before league matches.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The Portuguese coach, however, sought in his own way to downplay the significance of this matchup, pointing out that Camp Nou is, for him, simply another stadium where his team has to play, and therefore the derby is just another match for him.
“Am I returning to the Clásico? There are at least two every season. It doesn’t matter who the coach is. No, the derby isn’t a test for me. Real Madrid, with Mourinho, wins titles. Going to Camp Nou is just like going to any other stadium,” he said, and continued:
“If some people believed a week ago that we’d suffer a crushing defeat, they’ll believe the same thing now. The fact that there’s talk with positive comments about Barcelona doesn’t affect me; it’s none of my business. To be honest, there are moments that deserve praise, as they show a lot of good qualities. As for us… they treat us as if we were a fully-fledged team—something very difficult to achieve in soccer—but in reality, we’re not at an advanced stage of that process. We’ve been working for three months now, with a preseason during which the players were gradually integrated—about two at a time each week—until the break… We’re far from being a cohesive team; we’re in the early stages. We’re going through a phase where the coach is getting to know us, analyzing the situation, setting the direction, while the players are also getting to know the coach…
Comparing a team at this stage to another that has been together for several years doesn’t seem fair to me. Yamal is a great player, and great players deserve respect. However, respect is one thing, and changing your plans and structures—or forgetting your identity—is another. We’re not going to do that—neither because of him nor against anyone else who possesses his exceptional talent,” he concluded.
— Mundo Deportivo (@mundodeportivo) October 24, 2026
¿Cómo vive José Mourinho la vuelta al Camp Nou?
"Es igual que ir a otro estadio" https://t.co/GPihdckenq
*photo source: KYPE
