Mourinho's back to trolling Manchester United

Jose Mourinho is apparently really enjoying himself ahead of Chelsea's visit to Manchester United on Monday. The manager, renowned for his ability to unsettle opponents via the media, has been working on United all summer through his public pursuit of unsettled striker Wayne Rooney.

Asked whether he was expecting a hostile reaction at Old Trafford for his part in the Rooney saga, Mourinho expressed bafflement that the Blues might have done anything wrong:

I didn’t say, "You will be a  second choice for me."

We are trying to get a player that a manager told will be a second option for him. We are not going for Van Persie. They don’t have to be against me. If I say Ramires is a second option for me and he plays when Lampard is tired or injured and if someone comes here to get Ramires, nobody is upset.

Source: Mail.

Mourinho pins the situation on United manager David Moyes, who, in attempting to underscore Rooney's importance to his side, said that the England international would be vital in case Robin van Persie was injured -- which lead to those infamous 'confused and angry' stories the next day. He's also been careful to point out that Blues have done everything right, bidding for Rooney in the proper way, and even went so far as to claim that Chelsea wouldn't bid for him again until after the two sides had played one another in Manchester.

There's a point at which being publicly nice becomes sustained irony. And we're long past that point. This is hilarious. But, as Mourinho knows, unsettling his opponents through the transfer market won't count for anything unless he can also beat them on the pitch.