Florentino, Mourinho, the public prosecutor and AS
Late on Thursday evening Real Madrid issued a communique denying that Jose Mourinho was officially signed as head coach by the club on March 31, 2010. They claim that the date of his hiring as it appears in the documentation issued by the public prosecutor is May 31, 2010 with the league campaign already over by that date. It would appear that the public prosecutor have yet to amend the document and entered March instead of May on the paper which then eliminates the argument I presented in my editorial piece on Thursday morning mentioning that the deal was singed at the end of March which would have meant the 2009/10 league campaign ongoing.
Madrid reply
The source of ire for Madrid is not directed towards the public prosecutor, the source of the mistake but at AS with the statement literally reading: “Following the publication in today's AS newspaper of information concerning the signing of José Mourinho as the manager of our club, Real Madrid C.F. wishes to emphasise that said information is entirely false. The insinuation is that we were responsible for the mistake regarding the date. Moreover, the story was also carried that day by other major news outlets not just AS, such as: Efe, Europa Press, Reuters, El País, El Confidencial, Marca, RTVE, ABC, Público, Infolibre, Expansión, La Información and Cuatro.
Florentino
Why AS? In my article I also mentioned how the Cristiano deal was already concluded when Florentino returned to Real Madrid as president for the second time a point he's anxious to distance himself from with the Portuguese forward being the one key player in this period. He's provided a bagful of goals for Madrid season after season working under a range of Florentino imposed coaches with their own unique styles (Pellegrini, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Benítez, Zidane...). Florentino recently took AS to court, lost and had to pay fees and he does, on occasion like to vent his real feelings towards us.