… or the stupidest (though I’m leaning towards the former) because Chendo is the only known person to have questioned José Mourinho’s orders so far. (By the way, for those who don’t know, Miguel Porlán aka Chendo is a former Madrid player – the only team he has ever played for – and has been the team’s match delegate for the last decade, which he started doing as soon as he retired in 1998.) The task given to Chendo this season by Mou is to pressure the fourth referee, something which is at odds with his personality and beliefs, because he’s considered one of the most educados madridistas. From the time he entered the cantera of Madrid in 1977, he was taught to ignore the referees.
Earlier in the season, in Anoeta, the players saw Chendo question one of Mou’s decisions. Mou had asked him to protest the decisions of the referee and Chendo retorted, “in Madrid there are some things that don’t function as you think. Here, this is not done.” In addition to arguing, he also employs another tactic: he goes up to the referees as per Mou’s orders, but instead of questioning their decisions, he asks them things like “what time do you have?” or “is El Corte Inglés [a Spanish department store chain] open today?”