ITV won’t be apologising to viewers following last night’s post match interview debacle that saw Jose Mourinho cut off at a moment when it appeared the Real Madrid manager was lining up a revelatory line or two regarding his future.
The Portuguese had already told ITV's Gabriel Clarke he probably wouldn’t be at Real Madrid next year and he wanted to be “where people love me to be”, before Clarke cut him off. The sense that Jose was warming up for a public wink in the direction of Chelsea was palpable, but Clarke was soon to dampen any ideas Mourinho had of pouring his heart out to the world.
The feed went back to Adrian Chiles and co. pitch side for a brief moment before the broadcast finished.
The incident left viewers with a distinct sense of déjà vu, as ITV reminded us of their propensity for catastrophic timing with thier football coverage. This unfortunate trait is most memorable for the moment the broadcaster cut to ads in the 118th minute of a Merseyside derby FA cup tie. Bad enough as it was to lose the live pictures for millions of viewers, it was made infinitely worse as the game was settled with an 118th minute goal from Everton’s Dan Gosling. The match came back on to screens just in time for viewers to see Gosling and his Everton teammates well into their celebrations on the touchline.
Our reporter Gabriel Clarke managed to land an unexpected interview with Jose Mourinho with only two minutes left before the end of last night's Champions League programme on ITV.
At that stage it was too late to arrange an overrun of the broadcast beyond the allotted time. However, in a very tight, live situation, we showed as much as we possibly could of their exchange to viewers.
