Chelsea's poor run of away form in Europe continued last night, with their 1-0 loss at Real Betis. The subtext to the two games against Betis has been another nice little bit of history: Betis coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer was in charge of the Barcelona youth team whilst Mourinho was there as an assitant to Bobby Robson and then Louis Van Gaal. When his boss got the sack, Mourinho had little choice but to head back to Portugal to build his career as a manager in his own right from the ground up. In contrast, Ferrer stuck around at the Camp Nou and was ultimately rewarded with a (albeit brief and unsuccessful) stint as head coach of one of the greatest clubs in the world.
Apparently there is no love lost between the two men, but this theory has only been bandied about due to a recent exchange of caustic comments between the pair, which is standard practice for José of course. He gives the treatment to any opposition manager whose team is a threat (check out the recent 'Arsene is a voyeur' tirade, whereas he's got nothing but smiles for Fergie, patently due to the fact that United are no longer a threat to anyone) and no doubt he'll soon be having a bit more to say about Ferrer, as his Betis side now have a real chance of claiming second spot in Group G ahead of Chelsea.
The anti-Chelsea brigade shouldn't get too excited about the prospect of an early European exit for the Blues though. Expect Betis to fluff their lines and Mourinho to prevail. However, the Special One will know that he has to find the answer to his side's failure to pick up European wins away from home if Chelsea are to win the Champions League for the first time.
