Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager has denied being responsible for a shocking scouting report of Barcelona’s 2006 team that aimed to intentionally get Lionel Messi injured and addressed Ronaldinho as a “constant cheater.”
Jose’s Chelsea and Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona featured in an unforgettable UCL clash during the 2005-06 season – which the Barcelona won 3-2 on aggregate.
The remarkable report, published by Performance Analysis in Action on Twitter, revealed Chelsea’s plans to battle the team that eventually won the competition after defeating Arsenal in the final.
Notes from the report highlight the then-18-year-old Messi as one of his side’s biggest threats, encouraging players to foul him “outside the box and as early as possible” while Ronaldinho, then the reigning Ballon d’Or, is described as “constant cheater – falls easily.”
But Jose has come out to say that it is not his match report.
“I am sorry to disappoint those I think I wrote the reports, but I did not,”
“The reports are not mine. I did not write them.
“The last report I wrote I have it at home. I was in Barcelona and this was in the 1999/2000 season.
“I was assistant and I shared with other colleagues the responsibility of analysing and preparing documents about our opponents for the manager.
“Since I arrived at Benfica and until now my analysis never became official reports, but key ideas that helped me to prepare the training work and the matches planning.
“Official reports were always done by analysts, assistants and computer technicians, but never by me.”
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