Mourinho Fires Back at Fermin Ahead of El Clasico: We Are Tired of Other Things

TL;DR: Jose Mourinho answered Barcelona midfielder Fermin Lopez’s complaint that Real Madrid’s talk about referees is getting tiresome with a short, pointed reply at Saturday’s pre-Clasico press conference: there are many things that keep happening that tire Real Madrid too. Fermin had told Spanish broadcaster Teledeporte that Barcelona would rather be judged on their football, after nine straight league wins. Mourinho refused to name the things that tire his side, insisted he starts from the assumption that the referee is good, and said previous form counts for little once El Clasico begins at Camp Nou on Sunday.

El Clasico rarely needs a warm-up act, but this one got one anyway, and it came in two sentences. Fermin Lopez said he was tired of Real Madrid’s refereeing discourse. Jose Mourinho said Madrid were tired of other things. Neither man named his grievance in full, which is precisely why the exchange travelled.

What did Fermin actually say?

Fermin spoke first, and his complaint was about emphasis rather than a single decision. In an interview with Spanish broadcaster Teledeporte, the Barcelona midfielder said Madrid’s continued references to refereeing controversies had become tiresome, Sports Mole reports, particularly while Barcelona were demonstrating their quality through results and performances. His formulation was careful: it is getting a bit tiresome because we are showing our level on the pitch. He added that Barcelona’s players preferred to concentrate on their own football, and suggested that raising officiating issues suited Madrid’s interests, without elaborating on any specific incident.

That restraint is part of the point. Fermin did not accuse a referee of anything, and he did not revisit a single call. He accused Madrid of a habit, the habit of talking about referees, and he framed Barcelona’s nine straight league wins as the answer to it. A team that has won every league game does not need the discourse, in his telling, because the table already speaks. He also refused to call Barcelona favourites, telling Teledeporte it is a match either team can win, which keeps the complaint from sounding like a boast even as the league positions invite one.

How did Mourinho answer?

With a sentence designed to be quoted whole, and a refusal to explain it. Asked about Fermin’s remark at Saturday’s press conference, Mourinho said: “What can I say? There are many things that keep happening that tire us, and Fermin gets tired of our discourse. That’s how it is.” Sports Mole and Managing Madrid report the same wording, and Sports Mole notes the important limit of it: Mourinho stopped short of identifying exactly which events he considered frustrating, leaving the remark open to interpretation without making a specific new allegation.

That is classic Mourinho in a Clasico week, and it is worth naming as a technique rather than mistaking it for vagueness. A named grievance can be rebutted; an unnamed one cannot, and it invites every Madrid supporter to fill in their own list. The list on offer this week is long enough without him writing it: Vinicius Junior’s four-match ban for the hair pull against Villarreal, which rules him out of Sunday’s game; the Bernal headbutt case that has kept Spanish disciplinary procedure in the news; and Madrid’s wider, public fight with La Liga president Javier Tebas, covered in the Tebas resignation demand. Mourinho did not connect his sentence to any of those cases. He did not need to.

What about the referee for Sunday’s game?

Mourinho was also asked about the referee appointed to Sunday’s fixture, and his answer there was more precise than his answer about Fermin. He said he always starts from the assumption that the referee is good, Sports Mole reports, while expressing concern about situations in which established rules are not followed. Managing Madrid carries the same distinction: the referee’s name never bothers him, he starts from the premise the referee is good, but what bothers him is the breaking of the rules.

The context for that question is reporting, not a finding, and it should be kept that way. Reports have linked referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero to coaching payments connected to the son of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the referees’ technical committee, and Mourinho told his press conference he had been surprised by the speculation while stressing he had no personal objection to the appointment. AfricaSoccer, reporting AS, carries the same framing. Nothing in that reporting establishes wrongdoing by the referee, and Mourinho’s own words refuse to allege any. The row is about rules and appointments in the abstract, which is exactly where a pre-match row is safest for a manager and most frustrating for everyone else.

What is actually at stake on Sunday?

A nine-point lead, or the end of one before it hardens. Barcelona have 27 points from nine wins, Madrid have 21 from seven wins and two defeats, Sports Mole reports, so a home win at Camp Nou would take Barcelona nine points clear after only ten rounds. That is the kind of gap that ends title races in October, even if nobody at either club will say so before kick-off. Mourinho, predictably, refused the premise, saying Madrid arrive in good form, win matches, play well and score goals, but that in Clasicos previous form has no influence.

Who are the players both sides singled out?

Courtois and Mbappe for Barcelona, Yamal for Madrid, and respect in both directions. Fermin told Teledeporte he would remove Courtois, who wins Madrid a lot of points with saves, and Mbappe, who is a special player, Sports Mole reports, while adding that Madrid have very good players throughout and Barcelona must control all of them as a team. Mourinho returned the respect when asked about Lamine Yamal, calling him a great player but insisting Madrid would not abandon their structure to contain one opponent, a point that echoes the wider debate about Yamal’s treatment by officials in Spanish football this season.

Fermin, for his part, named the two Madrid players he would most like to remove from the game: Thibaut Courtois, who wins Madrid a lot of points with saves, and Kylian Mbappe, who is a special player, Sports Mole reports. Mourinho returned the respect in kind when asked about Lamine Yamal, calling him a great player but insisting Madrid would not abandon their structure to contain one opponent. Those exchanges, polite and professional, are the other half of a Clasico build-up: the players talk about football, the managers talk about everything around it, and on Sunday at 8pm UK time at Camp Nou, as with Saka’s absence from Arsenal’s weekend fixture, the absences and the arguments give way to the game itself. Fermin is tired of the discourse. Mourinho is tired of other things. By Sunday night, one of them will have something else to be tired about.