Jose Mourinho is currently searching Stamford Bridge for a leg to stand on after being charged with misconduct by the FA.
The FA statement was short and sweet and to the point for Saints fans.
"José Mourinho has been charged for misconduct in relation to media comments he made following Chelsea’s game against Southampton on Saturday 3 October 2015.
"It is alleged his remarks constitute improper conduct in that they allege and/or imply bias on the part of a match official or match officials and/or bring the game into disrepute.
"He has until 6pm on Thursday 8 October 2015 to respond to the charge.”
Now when a manager has a rant about a referee, most football fans have some sympathy, at some time or another there isn't a team in the League that has not been on the end of a wrong decision that has proved costly.
However that sympathy only extends when the manager in question actually has a proven point to rant & rave about and television replays have proven without doubt that the decision that Mourinho is so incensed by was not a penalty at all but a dive and that the referee was correct.
In fact the manager who should have been aggrieved that day at Stamford Bridge was not Mourinho but Saints boss Ronald Koeman who again as TV replays showed should have had two penalties for his team and saw Sadio Mane booked for a dive that was actually contact.
So what on earth was Jose Mourinho doing in his post match press interview when he made those accusations against the referee ?
There is a case as to why he may have flopped back in his seat at the time of the incident, even if he had harangued the third official, it looked a penalty and that is why Falcao deserved his booking, he had made a deliberate attempt to deceive the referee, if Mourinho wants a reason as to why referee's might think twice about giving decisions against his team, its in the way he has sent them out to play, their reputation, certainly amongst other teams supporters is a team full of players who will do anything to try and et their way, whether that goading opponents off the ball or throwing themselves to the ground..
If Mourinho had been a decent human being he would have gone into that interview, conceded that the referee had been right and congratulated Southampton on their win.
But that is not what he did and there was no reason as to why he should not have showed his maturity, there can be no doubt that when Mourinho went in front of the camera he knew exactly what the situation was, if he had not watched the replay himself, he would certainly have had enough people around him who would have analysed the TV replays over again and would hav told him that the referee had got it right.
He wanted to give the impression as he always does that he was cool calm and collected, that he had suffered a grave injustice and was right to speak out, the problem he has was that as he spoke the words all of those watching knew he was speaking to coin a phrase "absolute bullsh*t"
In that moment any credibility he had went out of the window, even Chelsea fans deep down must fel that he is a man not to be trusted, certainly the rest of us know that.
So the FA are right to charge Mourinho and they should throw the book at him, it is a lot more than a manager having a rant in the heat of the moment, indeed if he had been in rage there might have been some excuse for it, but he wasn't he was cool and calm and collected, so presumably he had all the facts to hand.
But it goes beyond just misconduct, there is a moral element, most football managers don't condone diving or simulation, call it what you want, there is a degree of hypocrisy in the game, where a manager will publicly raise his eyes ad tut tut when one of his players does it, but he will stop there, he won't criticise his player or fine him or do anything to discourage him, but he ill not admit to that, it goes on and managers by their failure to deal wit it are endorsing it.
But Mourinho seems to have gone a step further here, he is not jus accusing a referee of missing a genuine foul, he is accusing him of failing to let one of his players get away with a blatant act of cheating, how dare a referee accuse one of my players of diving even when he is !
This has bigger ramifications for the game and highlights just how much we need to look at simulation and how to deal with it, I am not one for stopping the game and viewing a replay, but some retrospective measures need to be taken.
So Mourinho will need a wheelchair for the FA enquiry because he will not have a leg to stand on to walk there !