Non-story of the Week

... is of course "Mourinho for England", a drum that the Times in particular has been banging despite the virtual impossibility of such an occurrence. It started earlier this week with the headline "Mourinho could be next England manager" - naturally I clicked the link (thereby adding a unique visit to the TimesOnline's web statistics, on which they base their advertising rates), eager to see whether the Special One had indeed been spotted lunching near Soho Square with Twatty Barwick. In fact, the Times hack had managed to wring 300 words out of the fact that Mourinho's leaving settlement with Chelsea does not legally prevent him from managing the England side, even though it does prevent him from working in the Premiership. So in other words, Mourinho "could", in the strictest sense of the word, be the next England manager. Thanks boys.

Not content to let a juicy non-story lie, the Times are at it again today with a piece headlined "FA to make reluctant Mourinho prime target". Again, once the punter has clicked the link and boosted ad sales, there is another weak article that produces not one shred of evidence that anyone at the FA is seriously considering Jose for the job, let alone making him the prime target. Instead, it says that he would be "a hugely popular choice", speculates that if McClaren goes, there will be "a clamour for the Portuguese to take over", without identifying the source of this clamour, which is , of course, The Times itself.