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Hi, all!
I think I have an obsession with oat milk (and no, it does not have anything to do with Joaquin Phoenix).
Ramble of the Day
I imagine reading about Son Heung-min’s injury, and the mystery of his possible return date, felt a bit like bad news that came out of nowhere, made you feel it was ironically funny, but it mostly knocked any level of positivity out of you.
What tends to follow is lonely suffering before the world and your team eventually moves on in a mood of frustration but helplessness. There is no loud period of outrage and despair usually, but manager José Mourinho seemed to have other plans.
For starters, his description of finding out the news was as dramatic as it comes.
#thfc Mourinho really laying it on thick over Son's injury.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) February 18, 2020
"The first thing [when we heard the news] was to break our hearts. The second thing was to break our team."
Really, though, he was just being more blunt than the average manager in a time like this. He was so sharp, it was surprising — but not far from general human emotion. Maybe Mourinho will move on to frustrating, but quiet, helplessness; he just wasn’t there when at the time he was scheduled to talk to people.
Mourinho: "I like analogies. When we arrived, we were -12 [from 4th]. We started climbing the stairs but the stairs immediately broke. We found a way, we start climbing & 11 floors up, when we arrive on 4th floor, someone took the stairs away!"
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) February 18, 2020
He’s not wrong to be so dark about it; in fact, I encourage the inoffensive honesty of his comments. Mostly, though, I like that he allowed for a period of despair before the tinkering he’s going to have to do — and the work everyone’s taking to imagine what he might end up doing.
tl;dr: Just a little acknowledgment of José Mourinho’s embrace of despair after the news of Son Heung-min’s injury.
Links of the Day
Ron Jans resigned as the FC Cincinnati manager after being reported by players for using a racial slur, and after allegations that the incident was part of a series of similar ones.
Three Swansea youth players and a coach were diagnosed with the mumps amid an outbreak in the UK, but the club says they have recovered.
David Squires remembers England’s 4-2 victory over Spain 33 years ago in his latest cartoon.
Today’s longer read: Vanessa Espinoza on how gender roles can impact people’s view on football, and how through football they see the rest of the world for Unusual Efforts