RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Want to know who is a ‘f****** disgrace?’ Try looking in the mirror Jose 

A thought came on Friday when I was having a conversation with a figure in the frenzied world of umpires.

It was, of course, about Anthony Taylor, and the advancements he made in his career before flying chairs, slime, and other acts of extreme aggression became a hallmark of his time in airports and parking garages.

At the heart of the discussion was his journey to becoming a “f****** disgrace.” It was a long game and in the last two years alone it has won the finals of the UEFA Super Cup, the Nations League, the FIFA Club World Cup and, of course, the Battle of Budapest on Wednesday.

It’s a solid body of work that looks stronger when you add up the domestic engagements that served as springboards to wider stakes – a couple of FA Cup finals, another in the League Cup and the 2018 Championship play-off, so now we’re a picture emerge. These are the kind of games that matter. Matches that need a good referee.

And Taylor is a good referee. Imperfect, yes, but it’s not the fixtures you get when you’re a little flaky and it’s a feeling that grows stronger as we understand his near misses.

Taylor did well in a desperately grim Europa League final between Sevilla and Roma

They include this year’s and 2022’s Champions League final – if it weren’t for English teams involved, Taylor would have blown the whistle.

The same goes for the 2022 World Cup final. It is being said by people who would know that he was considered the best choice but was ruled out due to the sensitivities surrounding England’s history with Argentina.

From that perspective, Taylor is considerably more than good. He’s actually among the very best, which brings us to Jose Mourinho and the particular thought I had on Friday: one of those guys is currently much better in his field than the other and it’s not the guy whose brilliance has long been outweighed by his poison. A ‘f****** disgrace’? Try the mirror, old boy.

We can all have our thoughts on Mourinho and who he is, especially in light of his slander of Taylor on Wednesday. What I saw was a defeated manager and a lost soul whose only certainty at age 60 came from his instinct that the blame for failure should always lie elsewhere. He’s the sewer pipe that would forever make you believe the lake made him do it.

What we saw midway through the week was desperately grim, before and after Taylor’s final whistle. It was a European final played between stoppages, groans, dives and fouls – there were 40 of the latter, and 13 yellow cards split between two cynical teams, not counting one for Mourinho.

The referee was labeled a ‘f****** disgrace’ by Roma boss Jose Mourinho in the aftermath

Seven of those bookings went to his Roma players or, to put it another way, almost two for each of the four shots they managed to score on target.

Those games are the stuff of nightmares for a referee, but Taylor has done well – some big decisions went to Sevilla and others went to Roma. swings. Roundabouts. And a lost game because Roma missed two penalties in a shootout.

Could Taylor have done better at that? Yes. Did he have a stronger game than many of the players? Yes. Was there a fumbling? No. Did Roma lose because of him? Let’s not be so stupid. But that is Mourinho’s trading stock and has been for much of the past 20 years.

He just has less wins now and less charisma to make up for the dirt, but the dirt has always been there. It was there in Anders Frisk’s episode. In the voyeuristic meanness about Arsène Wenger. In the affairs of Eva Carneiro and so many points in between, right down to the three red cards he’s had in Serie A this season and then to the mess in Hungary. It’s his way.

He distracts and distracts. He finds a conspiracy. He talks nonsense into microphones and chases umpires in underground parking garages and the unintended consequence is what happened next at the airport, when those thugs chased Taylor and his wife.

Mourinho was a defeated manager who sought conspiracy by diverting attention from Taylor

I’d be afraid to draw an arrow in thick ink between what Mourinho said and the subsequent actions of morons – at some point in life you become responsible for your own behavior and I hope that usually happens before most adults throw a chair.

But Mourinho did compose the mood music for the situation and he has been playing the same boring tune for a long time. We can call it the ballad of a shrinking giant.

The temptation in these moments is to visit one of Mourinho’s many high points to assess how far he has fallen. It’s not a new device, but the slow rot of its reputation isn’t a new topic. It’s just one that takes on new layers and depths forever, so when I think about what it used to be, I usually rewind to 2010.

He was a force of nature then. An incredible coach too, and perhaps his finest hour can be traced back to that Champions League semi-final 13 years ago when Mourinho’s knocked out Inter Barcelona. That was a masterpiece in the counterattack and it ripped apart one of the greatest clubs in history.

The Roma boss added to the mood that led to Taylor being confronted by fans at an airport

Barca manager Pep Guardiola was devastated and my point of reference is the ferocity he received from his striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In his memoirs, Ibrahimovic wrote, “He stared at me and I lost it. I yelled at him: “You have no balls! You’re the bastard yourself because of Mourinho.”’

That’s who Mourinho was then. A genius. A king of tactics and man management. A man who could make Guardiola feel small. Sharpening his axe, Ibrahimovic also wrote: “Mourinho lights up a room, Guardiola draws the curtains.” But that was then.

Guardiola’s next game is the Champions League final. Mourinho? He still lights up a room, but he does it with gasoline and matches and sparks of joylessness.

Time was he nurtured a siege mentality as part of a wider managerial arsenal; now it’s his only distinct feature and it’s performed with the big eyes of a man in a tinfoil hat.

Mourinho is one of the greats of the game, but his magic has diminished over time

Perhaps the responsibility here should be shared by more of us – we all enjoyed the early Mourinho and his rough edges. We have accepted it. I even loved it. But I’m sure there was some charm back then. More of a sparkle in the eye.

Today we are talking about a manager who recently wore a wire on the sidelines to “protect” himself from a bad referee and simply played a part in causing mayhem at one airport for another.

That he still makes it to the finals shows that he has retained some of his ability to boost and extract. But they are lesser finals. And they are smaller clubs. And the direction of travel is south, farther from that night in 2010, or 2004, or whenever you like among its 26 trophies.

It’s sad when you think about it because he’s one of the greats, but all the magic wears off with time. And most rage against the dying of the light, as they say. On the other hand, it is a personal choice to “f****** disgrace yourself” along the way.