A young West Ham mascot got the better of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho
(Getty Images)
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It’s just not a good time to be Jose Mourinho. The Chelsea manager is facing growing calls for his head as the champions continue to fall short in the Premier League defence, he has incurred relentless sanctions from the Football Association for his poor behaviour on the touchlines and in interviews and now he has been beaten once again – by a child.
However, Mourinho can’t be criticised this time after he engaged in a spot of good humour with a young West Ham mascot before the 2-1 defeat by the Hammers last weekend.
Ahead of the match, Mourinho met the ball boys and mascots when he was informed by one of the youngsters that his side were going to lose the match.
Speaking to KUMB podcast, former West Ham winger Stuart Slater revealed that Mourinho returned to find out who had the nerve to (correctly) predict his side’s downfall, and made him a well-humoured bet.
“Before the game Mourinho was talking to the ball boys and mascots and one of the mascots said to him ‘we’re going to beat you!”, said Slater.
“When he returned from the warm-up, he came back into the tunnel and asked which one of the mascots said West Ham were going to beat Chelsea – one of the boys put his hand up and said ‘it was me!’.”
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho lost a bet to a West Ham mascot
(Getty Images)
Mourinho then is believed to have said: “If we win I’ll have your shirt – and if you win, I’ll get you a signed Chelsea shirt.”
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Slater added: “Whether it happened or not, I don’t know – but it was brilliant that he could have a little bit of banter before the game.”
The problem for Mourinho is his side did go on to lose, and given that the Portuguese was sent to the stands for approaching referee Jon Moss at half-time and has already been fined £50,000 for his comments after the loss to Southampton, it’s certainly been a bad month for ‘The Special One’.
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