Jose Mourinho Warned Crystal Palace Ball Boy He'd Get "Punched" for Time Wasting

Jose Mourinho and Chelsea lost to lowly Crystal Palace on Saturday in the Premier League. It all but cost the Blues their chance to win the league. The Portuguese manager left little room for interpretation afterward saying, “I don’t think now we can win the league.”

Mourinho being Mourinho still found a way to make headlines for an incident in the second half at Selhurst Park when cameras caught him wagging his finger in the face of a ball boy for an attempt at time-wasting in front of Cesar Azpilicueta after a ball went out of play. Last season Chelsea had an incident in a match vs. Swansea City when Eden Hazard kicked the ball boy for his time-wasting attempts, so Mourinho took it upon himself to play temporary dean of discipline. Call this example No. 432 of Mourinho doing whatever the hell he wants on the touchline in England.

The picture above says a lot, but here’s what numerous British papers quoted the Special One saying, ““I told him [the ball boy] not to do that because he runs the risk of one of my players to punch him or to lose his temper, so don’t do that because you are risking [it]. But somebody told him to do that.”

Lost in the hyerbole of the “punch” line, Mourinho does make a halfway decent point: clubs shouldn’t be telling ball boys to use time-wasting methods late in the game. Granted Crystal Palace finds itself in the midst of the relegation fight, so the club is probably going to do all that it can to ensure it survives the drop, including this sort of gamesmanship.

Thanks to Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal, Chelsea remain atop the EPL table for the time being. Liverpool can move to the summit Sunday with a win over Tottenham.

[Photo via Getty]