Milan - Three months after taking over Inter Milan, star coach Jose Mourinho seems to have achieved better results in media exposure than in the performance of the Italian champions. Inter's only truly convincing game was a 2-0 win away to Panathinaikos in the Champions League opening game, while a 1-0 defeat to AC Milan at the weekend topped a run of four unbeaten, and only partly convincing, Serie A games.
With 33 games remaining, Mourinho still has time to show his worth, but in the meantime he has had a considerable impact on Italian football, which is already split between supporters and detractors.
Palermo owner Maurizio Zamparini possibly gave the best picture of the 45-year-old Portuguese saying this week that "Mourinho is the greatest signing of (Inter president Massimo) Moratti. He is a great coach. He just brags too much, but he can do it because he is very good."
Beside a penalty shoot-out win over Roma in the Italian Supercup, however, Mourinho has not had much to brag about since the start of the Italian season.
As Inter at the weekend dropped to third position, two points behind surprising Lazio, La Gazzetta dello Sport gave them a very low mark "because Inter are Inter and they at a single time lost the derby (to Milan), the (Serie A) leadership and their unbeaten record."
But Inter performance aside, Mourinho has stuck to his outspoken and often blunt ways when he deals with his colleagues and the media.
A first verbal clash took place after two games with Piero Lo Monaco, the general manager of underdogs Catania, who lost 2-1 in Milan through two own goals as Inter played part of the game with 10 men.
Lo Monaco bristled at the coach's statement that "a fair result would have been 3, 4 or 5-1," and said that Mourinho deserved to be "clubbed on his teeth," a sentence he later described as "a colourful Sicilian way to invite Mourinho to respect the others."
The Portuguese's ironic reply was that he only knew the Tibetan monks (monaco in Italian) and the Monaco Grand Prix and that "if this Lo Monaco wants to be known for talking about me, he should pay me a lot."
Ten days later, Mario Beretta, whose promoted Lecce lost 1-0 in Milan, criticized Mourinho for sending his assistant coach to meet the media after the game.
And last weekend, it was the turn of Lazio and second place Napoli to feel belittled when Mourinho said that he only looked at the position of big guns like Juventus, Milan and Roma, "who are all behind us."
"Mourinho must struggle to keep up with the promises made and the conditions set at the start of the league," Napoli general manager Pierpaolo Marino said, adding that "Inter are not keeping the same pace as the past years."
But there are some who have appreciated Mourinho for his criticism of the gossip that holds sway in Italian football.
Although he said he did not regret coming to Italy after his successful stints at Porto and Chelsea, Mourinho said he felt "that Italians are not as in love with football as I thought. They love more the television shows. I see everyone worry about small things that mean nothing in football."
His comments found support, among others, from daily la Repubblica, who advised to follow his lead and called him " a potential reformer."
