The Mou Theatre presents: Pantomime at 21:20 h

Last Saturday Jose Mourinho wanted to mount a referendum on his person and in doing so, convened the Madrid populace forty minutes before the start of the game in which his team, Real Madrid, was played much more than hold the supremacy over its neighbor and rival, Atletico Madrid. Whistle or clap, those were the two options. So what happened? What we all knew was going to happen, the first, Mourinho.

The call of the popular exam was setup from the beginning. The Portuguese coach knows what you do and never expose a battle that is sure to win. Mourinho knew who would be at the Santiago Bernabeu at 21:20 h, forty minutes before the time you should start derby. No erred in its calculations, everything was as he had thought and pantomime came out perfectly.

Of the more than 80,000 fans attending the derby, how many had reached the stage at 21:20 h? A few thousands (three, four, five?), Nothing more. And a good percentage of them were members of the Ultra Sur, the radical group that idolizes Mourinho to the point of qualifying partners who will whistle like motherfuckers antimadridistas (funny thing, being a panda precisely at this point mourinhista is that madridista). In the Bernabeu had more people than any other party at the same time, so the call was unsuccessful Mourinho: nor between anti-Mourinho or who simply have occasionally whistled, nor between the great mass that supports without falling in totemism.

There were those who always seem to be. And Mourinho knew who was going to be and what is your opinion about it most of them, especially those who are able to make more noise than others: the Ultra Sur. So no one should wonder that over the few whistles and not many more applause, the sound to prevail over others has been the name of the Portuguese coach, sung in a low tone and diction almost military. The plebiscite was rigged from the start so that the result was all that could be expected.

Mourinho wanted to disguise his pantomime of a service to the cause: first solve mine and then focus everyone on the team. But the only way around the issue is what the First me, the team later. So Mourinho. And do not fool anyone, well, anyone who does not want to fool yourself. Because that's the danger of idolatry: in the end the adept becomes more Catholic than the Pope.

If Mourinho really wanted a plebiscite should have acted differently. First and foremost, do not pretend to summon himself, because it is needed: in football popular clamor, whether for good or ill, occurs spontaneously, naturally, without the need for anyone to direct or claim. And second, and more important: wait to see if the derby ended with a bad result. For that Madrid would have tied or lost, and if that occurred with the alarming lack of game that the team had been showing in recent times: that's when you should be exposed to the judgment of the parish. A real trial, not designed.

Before a packed house and after a bad result, not before a game with just a few thousand people scattered and, of course, his beloved Ultra Sur. Sure it's not easy being exposed to popular verdict when just harvested a defeat and, much less, if it involves losing or out of a title. But when the public really loves you and believes that you could not do more, you've given everything, even in the worst of defeats will applaud. And you will not need anyone asks. But this is something I will never understand those for which, as Mourinho and ultra-mourinhistas, success in football only measured in degrees.