ENGLAND women's manager Sarina Wiegman is given a whopping new contract while Jose Mourinho gets the boot from Roma.
It would be hard to think of two managers of such opposites — one sweet and on an even keel, the other smart and as unsteady as a coracle in a Force 10.
Jose the Brag against Sarina the Whisper. Both of them highly successful and competitive from head to toe. Don’t you just love football?
Mourinho is addicted to riding for the fall, a bombastic male with always something to say. Wiegman is equally clever but diplomatic.
She could make Prime Minister, he a War Minister.
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Sacking and Mourinho are close companions, having passed through nine clubs — Chelsea twice, as is their way — with achievements becoming rarer by the season.
Only he and the taxman in his country, Portugal, know how many millions he has earned. But dismissal by Roma won’t lead to a dismal two-up, two-down in Lisbon.
No doubt he could afford to retire to a palace on the Algarve, although he’s more likely to tempt another desperate club to gamble on his genius in the hope of the magic that brought him two Champions League wins, three Prem titles and many other trophies.
The women’s game rewards similar skills and Wiegman knows how to sharpen those. She is tactically erudite and in no way abrasive. She is also managing two daughters and, dare I say it, a husband.
To all her other girls, she’s more helpful aunt than manic preacher.
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When she was appointed it was clear a woman of substance was required as England blundered out of tournaments.
Just as Mourinho is licking his wounds, Wiegman lands a contract that, I suspect, matches many in the Premier League.
Women tend to tighten their tongues where money is concerned, at least we do when some busybody wishes to know how much she spent on her new dress. Eye roll!
Same with contracts, really, so it should be no surprise that neither Wiegman nor the FA were prepared to divulge her salary.
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As a player and manager she has been outstanding. With both the Dutch and England teams, she won the European Championships — two up on her male equivalent, Gareth Southgate, who lost in the final.
Protests that the managers should have similar financial terms are lost on me. The fact is that at no level is the women’s game yet equal to the men’s — in crowds, stadium facilities, TV and other earnings.
Just as Mourinho is licking his wounds, Wiegman lands a contract that, I suspect, matches many in the Premier League.
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One day possibly — but not right now. I have no idea whether Wiegman has met Mourinho.
The connection between the smiling lady from The Hague and the silver-haired son of Setubal is only football, though they surely challenge each other in full names — Jose Mario dos Santos Mourinho Felix against Sarina Petronella Wiegman-Glotzbach. Call that a 2-2 draw.
Modest as ever, Wiegman has just won the Fifa World’s Best Women’s Coach award for a fourth time and almost apologised for it.
Has Mourinho ever apologised for anything? No way, Jose.
On the face of it, he seems on the way down but I doubt it.
There have been hints of an international job? Possibly, but scathing criticism from a man who was a very modest midfielder would scarcely be welcomed by a touchy international player.
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