It’s been four years since Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunner Solskjaer faced off, and that’s not a bad thing given what was said between them last time.
The Fenerbahce and Besiktas managers will meet for the first time in the Istanbul derby, having avoided each other since clashing after a Tottenham and Manchester United match in 2021.
United won 3-1 on that day at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but even with three points in the bag, Solskjaer was still annoyed over an incident that took place before any of the goals.
Edinson Cavani fired United ahead early on, but in the build up Scott McTominay’s fingers glanced the face of Heung-min Son who stayed down until well after the ball hit the net.
Referee Chris Kavanagh was called to his VAR screen to review the incident and overturned it, much to Solskjaer’s anger.
Son would then score the opener, before three goals from the visitors rendered the Korean’s input pointless, yet the opposition manager was still fuming.
“If that was my son and he stays down and he needs his mates to help him up, he doesn’t get food because that’s embarrassing, the game’s absolutely gone,” the Norwegian said still angry.
He added on the VAR: “If that’s a clear and obvious error, it’s an obvious error he had to look at it. It was a perfectly good goal.
“They are conned. We weren’t conned, the referee was. Unfortunately the referee decided we are not playing football or VAR decided probably. I’m absolutely shocked if that is a foul.”
The defeat proved to be Mourinho’s last at Spurs as he was sacked a week later following a draw with Everton.
His coaching abilities may have been abandoning him, but not his skill in stealing headlines, as he took the chance to go after Solskjaer in an aggressive fashion.
“First of all, let me tell you something. I’m very, very surprised that after the comments that Ole made on Sonny, you don’t ask me about it,” he said, perhaps deflecting from the defeat.
McTominay glanced Son[/caption]
“Because – and I told Ole already this because I met him just a few minutes ago – if it’s me, telling a player from another club, ‘if it was my son I wouldn’t give him dinner tonight’, what would the reaction be?
“It’s very, very sad. I think it’s really sad that you don’t ask me about that. It’s sad you don’t have the moral honesty to treat me the same way as you treat others.
“In relation to that, I just want to say that Sonny is very lucky that his father is a better person than Ole.
“I am a father. I think as a father you have to always feed your kids. It doesn’t matter what they do. If you have to steal to feed your kids, you steal.
“I’m very, very disappointed. As we say in Portugal, bread is bread and cheese is cheese. I told Ole already what I think about his comments and I’m very disappointed that in five, six, seven questions you ignore the dimensions of that comment.”
Who knows how aggressive that comment was, all that’s clear is that Mourinho hasn’t been able to settle any scores since.
He later joined Roma where he won the Conference League, and now at Fenerbahce there’s only one path left open for silverware in the Super Lig.
Standing in his way on Sunday will be Solskjaer, who left United in 2021 and only recently returned to the dugout with Besiktas in January.
Istanbul derbies are among the most intense in Europe, and Beskitas have the chance to not only jump to third with a win, but as good as end Fener’s title chances as the gap will increase to eight leaders Galatasaray also win.
If that wasn’t enough spice in the pot, Solskjaer was asked about Mourinho’s parenting dig in his pre-match press conference and tried to play it down.
“It won’t be a duel between Jose and me, it will be between Besiktas and Fenerbahce,” he said.
“I have great respect for Mourinho; he’s a very successful coach, and there are few with a track record like his.
“I’m looking forward to the derby and we have enough strength to beat any opponent.”
He added: “Sometimes I wish I could be a footballer again, because it’s incredible to play in such important games. Right now, I’d rather be on the pitch than on the bench.”
So he could score one of his famous goals? Or maybe just to avoid Mourinho…
