Throughout any given season Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger are going to get in trouble for their behaviour in the dugout.
But it seems a bit bizarre for all three to have had encounters with fourth officials all in the space of a few days.
Last week, Wenger was suspended after he pushed Anthony Taylor towards the end of Arsenal’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Burnley.
And over two nights this week, Mourinho and Klopp both had exchanges with fourth officials during their respective Premier League home draws.
Klopp approached Neil Swarbrick in a rather aggressive manner following Simon Mignolet’s late penalty save against Chelsea and reportedly roared “Nobody can beat us.”
Lost his cool https://t.co/nIRj5YkBYD
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 1, 2017
The outburst was met with a friendly “I like your passion,” from Swarbrick in an act of understanding that Manchester United manager Mourinho wasn’t so lucky to receive the following evening.
Mourinho claimed that he was warned to sit down or he would be sent off during United’s 0-0 stalemate against Hull and explained to reporters that “You know clearly that I am different. The rules for me are different. I am different in everything.”
Mourinho continued: “On Tuesday, one fourth official told a manager: ‘I enjoy very much your passion, so do what you want to do’.
“Today I was told ‘sit down or I have to send you to the stands’, so everything is different for me. Don’t ask me questions that put me in a difficult situation.”
The not-so-veiled jibe at Klopp was put to the Liverpool boss on Thursday afternoon but the German did well not to rise to the bait.
“I have no idea (if managers are treated differently), it depends on the fourth official,” Klopp said, with quotes appearing in the Liverpool Echo. “We all know what we can do, when I saw again the picture after, I knew it didn’t look nice but it was not as bad as it looked. That’s why I said what happened.
“Maybe I was lucky that fourth official said something like that, I never heard something like this before, it was the first time.
“There are different ways to handle a situation, it is quite an emotional game and switching off emotions is not that simple.
“Myself, Jose, Arsene (Wenger), we struggle in moments like this.
“We are all different, sometimes we get a fine, sometimes not. It’s not what we want to do, nor is it a tactic. It was worse for me when I was younger! I have already improved.
“I have no idea why he spoke about me, you will have to ask him.”
