From Benzema to Vinicius: Mourinho digs up the famous "cat" story 16 years on
Jose Mourinho is back on the cat metaphors, 16 years after the famous line he aimed at Karim Benzema. This time the Portuguese reached for a proverb from home to attack the timing of the punishment handed to Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior.
Speaking after Roma's match on Wednesday evening, Mourinho rolled out the phrase "the cat is hidden but its tail is showing", a nod to what he saw as motives nobody could disguise. Vinicius had learned of his four-match ban in the Spanish league just two hours before kick-off in Europe.
Mourinho and Benzema: the "cat" story that entered football history
It all started on 11 November 2010, according to a report in "Marca". Mourinho, then in his first spell at Real Madrid, used an amusing cat analogy to describe Benzema's situation as the Frenchman battled Gonzalo Higuain for the starting striker's role.
The Portuguese coach said at the time: "If you don't have a dog to go hunting with, and you have a cat, then you go with the cat, because you can't go on your own."
Higuain was out with a slipped disc at the time, and Mourinho was explaining how he would cope without him by leaning on Benzema from the start against Real Zaragoza.
Nobody let the line slide. It became one of the defining quotes of Mourinho's career, and it lodged in Benzema's memory too. Years later the striker admitted: "Because of the cat story that Mourinho came out with, I lost my temper and said to him what I had to say to him."
"The cat is no longer hidden": Mourinho attacks the timing of Vinicius's punishment
Some 5,816 days on from that Benzema jibe, the cats are back, only the target has changed completely. Mourinho took aim at the timing of Vinicius Junior's four-match ban.
In his press conference after the Roma game, Mourinho said: "Will you allow me to ask a question? Is it normal for a player to find out, two hours before the match, that he is going to be punished with a four-match ban? There's no need for you to answer me. Is that normal? Couldn't they have announced the decision now or tomorrow morning? Did it have to be announced while we were on our way to the stadium?"
Reaching for the proverb from his homeland, the Portuguese added: "In Portuguese, we say: the cat is hidden but its tail is showing. I think the cat is no longer hidden now."
He wasn't finished. "The cat is acting freely, and there are things happening without any shame. It is acting freely. For that to happen two hours before the match, with a player who belongs to a Spanish side that delivered three points for the reputation of Spanish football, that does not seem normal to me."
His parting shot: "But I have come to see these things as normal, because the cat is no longer hidden. Is that the question?"
What does the Portuguese proverb used by Mourinho mean?
"Gato escondido com o rabo de fora" translates literally as "a cat hidden with its tail showing". It describes someone trying to bury a secret or a bad deed so clumsily that everyone can see exactly what they are up to.
Spanish has its own version in "Se le ve el plumero", aimed at anyone whose intentions have been laid bare despite their best efforts. Another close cousin is "trying to block out the sun with a finger", the act of hiding a truth that is plain to everyone.
With that one proverb, Mourinho tore into the timing of Vinicius's punishment and made clear he believes the whole business is beyond concealing. Sixteen years after the line that followed Benzema around, the old lexicon is back.
