Mourinho Pellegrini is one of the odder sub-plots in recent Bernabeu history, and nobody expected it to be settled with a hug — yet that is exactly how Jose Mourinho framed Friday night in Seville. Asked about facing Manuel Pellegrini, the man he replaced at Real Madrid and the man he once needled in public, the Portuguese offered something close to an apology.
"I don't reproach anything, because we can't go back in time," he said. "But in my very long past in football, there are moments and words you say where, in the end, you feel like an idiot, that you got it wrong. With him, I said a word or two and made some very stupid comments."
Mourinho Pellegrini: the words that still sting
Pellegrini had one season in charge at Real Madrid before Mourinho arrived in 2010, and during the Portuguese's first spell he aimed pointed remarks at the Chilean's standing in the game. Fifteen years on, in quotes carried by Mundo Deportivo, Mourinho decided the account was overdue for settling.
"He'll probably laugh if he hears us," Mourinho added. "I paid for it properly, because the Premier League title he won with Manchester City — if Liverpool had drawn with my Chelsea, Liverpool would have been champions. But we won."
"A hug before, and after"
Then came the story Madridistas will enjoy most, because it is Mourinho paying a debt rather than collecting one. He recalled a Betis friendly against his Roma side in which, he said, an official who "deeply loved Betis" left the Italians down to seven men on the pitch.
"And he said: we're not going to hammer them, we'll leave it as it is," Mourinho recalled of Pellegrini's intervention at 3-1. "He could have put eight past us. He's a great coach, an example as a person. I like him a lot. Tomorrow, a hug before, and after."
It is a notably softer register than the one he used at the same Thursday press conference when the subject turned to Raul Asencio — and a reminder that the Mourinho of this second Madrid spell is choosing his fights more carefully than the first.
Pellegrini returns the compliment
Across Andalusia, the Chilean was reaching much the same conclusion. Speaking at the Ciudad Deportiva Luis del Sol, Pellegrini told Marca that he sees a changed opponent in the away dugout: "I see Mourinho as much more mature still as a coach now than years ago."
He was rather less indulgent about his own team. "The side arrives as every side does at the start of a season, picking up its rhythm game by game, with three matches played: two of them quite well and the last one quite badly," he said — the last one being the 5-2 collapse at Levante that followed two opening clean sheets.
Pellegrini also repeated that his squad, now closed, is a holding midfielder light. "I already gave my opinion on what I thought, and I'm not changing my opinion in three or four days," he said. He does expect a lift from a familiar name, though: "Dani Ceballos is a player whose career speaks for itself, a quality player who is going to give us something in that position."
The Ceballos subplot
Ceballos left Real Madrid this summer by mutual termination, and Mourinho was unusually candid about how quickly it was done. "We spoke for three minutes on the phone. I told him I wasn't counting on him," he said. "Often players cling to their contracts and it creates a problem. In this case it was easy, because he told me he preferred to be free to decide his future."
Los Blancos kick off at the Estadio de La Cartuja on Friday 4 September at 21:00 CEST — 20:00 BST — with nine points from nine banked and seven players still in the treatment room. Mundo Deportivo note the all-time record in Seville sits at 26 Madrid wins, 25 for Betis and 20 draws; last season Hector Bellerin cancelled out Vinicius Junior deep into stoppage time. The rest of a demanding September starts here.
Two old adversaries, one embrace, and then 90 minutes in which neither will give the other a thing.
