Mourinho's battle with the board

José Mourinho has been living with the impression that the league is slipping from Real Madrid's fingers for a few weeks. That impression was amplified to become a conviction at Almería, where Real dropped two points against a spirited side battling relegation. Mourinho's unease turned to rage when he learned that Jorge Valdano, Real's general director, had joked to a television camera about the issue of signing a new striker: "There's a number nine on the bench," he said. The number nine in question was Karim Benzema, the misfiring Frenchman who holds Florentino Pérez's trust but was only named as a substitute against Almería.

The Real board viewed the moment as a mere trifle. For Mourinho it represented a further rupture in his fractious relationship with Valdano and, by extension, another step in his drifting away from club president Pérez.

"I talked about a number nine during pre-season," Mourinho said on Wednesday, with a darker-than-usual countenance. "And I talked about a number nine when we knew that Higuaín would not be able to play. In the past few days it has not been me talking about a number nine. Those talking about it are those who send messages. I'm too old now to read messages in the newspaper. These messages do not reach me. I run the team. The decisions are mine. If at any point I have a doubt, my assistants are those that can help me. Because, obviously, all coaches have doubts. But I'm a dinosaur who has been in football for [...] years and I don't have to put up with messages in newspapers."

Mourinho, whose contract earns him 10 million euros a year until 2014, understands that Valdano is an instrument of Pérez. He feels isolated. He believes his requirements are being ignored, his ideas are not being backed and that his authority is suffering because of club politics. The list of Mourinho's gripes grows daily.

Leaks to newspapers that discredit him, the club's refusal to offer Pepe a new contract, which Mourinho expressly asked for, the failure to sign a striker in return for letting Raúl leave the team, the refusal to sign Hugo Almeida as an emergency replacement, a lack of support from the club in his campaign against what he sees as referee bias against Real, and the president's defense of Benzema, questioning Mourinho's meritocracy in the team, are some of the matters the coach is fuming over. There is a growing feeling that he wants out in the summer.

The board continues to back Mourinho publicly: "These are just skirmishes," said a director after Wednesday's board meeting. "He's doing a great job." But there are some who feel that Mourinho's appeal for a number nine is a smokescreen in case Real ends the season empty-handed.

As institutional tension bubbles, the team has gone off the boil on the field. Mourinho, though, spun a positive light on recent results. "In the last three games the opposition has scored first but we still have not lost. We came back against Villarreal and Atlético and tied with Almería."

Real has broken its own record for points won in the first half of the season with 48, but has dropped six against modest opposition — Mallorca, Levante and Almería — away from the Bernabéu. Neither is Real's run-in a pretty sight, with upcoming trips to Villarreal, Athletic, Valencia and Sevilla, all hostile territory for the white shirts.

Mourinho's discontent with the club's directors is not new. After the match against Sevilla in the Bernabéu he complained the structure of Real does not work. "Nobody defends the team," he said, and publicly challenged Pérez to a face-to-face meeting. A month later, things have not improved.

"You seem to be upset," said an interlocutor at Mourinho's Wednesday press conference. "Why?"

"Because I want to leave," Mourinho responded, smiling for the first time during the conference. "I want to go..."

He didn't finish the sentence and left the double meaning hanging in the air. Did he want to leave the press conference, or the club? In any case, he has sent his message back to Valdano.