James Milton: Why Jose Mourinho should stop ranting about referees and find his inner peace

It did not require a chemistry degree to predict that adding a dash of Jose Mourinho to a conical flask containing the simmering Fenerbahce-Galatasaray rivalry would result in an explosive reaction.

The Istanbul giants met in the Turkish Super Lig on Monday and Mourinho's comments after their spiky goalless draw earned him a four-match touchline ban and a £35,000 fine.

The repercussions of this ill-starred experiment are set to drag on as Fenerbahce are appealing against the punishment imposed on their manager.

And Galatasaray have alleged that there was a racial element to Mourinho's description of their substitutes and coaching staff "jumping like monkeys" as they protested about an early tackle made by a Fener defender.

Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic took charge of Monday's game because both clubs had requested an overseas official for the top-of-the-table clash.

That appointment satisfied Mourinho, who told the media afterwards that he had gone to the referees' dressing-room to thank Vincic for his service.

Jose being Jose, however, he also seized the opportunity to tell the Turkish fourth official – and this is Mourinho's own account of their chat – that "if you are the referee, this match would be a disaster".

Helpfully for the Turkish Football Federation's disciplinary board, Mourinho clarified that his words were not meant as a personal attack on the individual referee but instead as a general comment on the standard of officiating in the Super Lig.

The much-travelled Mourinho might, in another life, have ended up as an all-conquering populist politician. Perhaps he will in this life – after all, he's only 62, nearly a decade younger than Donald Trump at the start of his first term.

Jose has the perfect 'outsider' back-story: an unsuccessful lower-league footballer who rose from working as Bobby Robson's interpreter to managing Real Madrid.  

He possesses the necessary charisma, ambition and ruthlessness as well as the contempt for the status quo, which occasionally veers into paranoia.

Uniting your own camp by demonising others remains, sadly, an effective political strategy but does creating a siege mentality really work in sport?

From his very first press conference as Chelsea manager, Mourinho ensured that the pressure would be on him rather than his players.

He swiftly became as renowned for his spats with rival managers and acerbic post-match comments as he was for winning trophies.

It is easy to join the dots and suggest that Jose wouldn't have been half as successful at Chelsea if he hadn't been shoving Arsene Wenger on the touchline or hiding in laundry baskets to get around a stadium ban.

But how does disappearing down a conspiracy-theory rabbit-hole about referees – all referees – help his Fenerbahce players perform on the pitch?

Top-level sport demands calmness and clarity of thought. To quote the famous Lutheran prayer (sort of): 'God grant me the serenity of Cole Palmer preparing to take a crucial penalty'.

It must be difficult to find that clarity if you're stepping out of the tunnel with the nagging sense that Opus Dei, the Freemasons, rogue CIA agents and a Liverpool-supporting VAR are all intent on awarding a soft penalty for handball against your team.

Injustice, or perceived injustice, has been a theme of Arsenal's doomed Premier League title challenge. The Gunners have suffered some bizarre and damaging red cards, most recently in last weekend's home defeat to West Ham.

But, as Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian wrote this week: "That's not a sign, as a significant proportion of Arsenal's support would insist, of referees being against them but of their players repeatedly committing needless offences."

India's Shubman Gill is the epitome of calm while at the creaseCredit: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR

Watching last weekend's Champions Trophy game between India and Pakistan, cricket's equivalent of Galatasaray-Fenerbahce, I was struck by the absolute stillness of Shubman Gill's head as he waited for the next delivery. 

The India batter had the serene, assured focus of a surgeon, a sniper or a diamond-cutter. He definitely didn't look like a man who was inwardly seething: "This umpire's desperate to give me out lbw and I bet there'll be gremlins in the DRS technology."

Having backed Gill to score over 46.5 runs, unfortunately I struggled to maintain my own zen-like outlook on life when he was bowled for 46. 

Almost certainly the fault of a Turkish fourth official …

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