Claudio Ranieri ought to be used to seeing Jose Mourinho in his rear-view mirror. He started seeing his face looming there some time ago. It would exaggerate the circumstances of April and May 2004 to say that was when the self-styled "Special One" began stalking Ranieri, but it must at times have felt like something that sinister to the older of the two coaches.
Ranieri at that stage was chasing the English Premier League title with Chelsea, and it would be a vain pursuit of the prize. Ranieri's final months in London were spent juggling that challenge, overseeing a surprise defeat in the semi-final of the Champions League, and at the same time knowing his players knew he was shortly to be sacked.
Mourinho duly followed Ranieri into the palace of Roman Abramovich's wealth, anointed for the role long before Ranieri officially departed.
Mourinho's attitude to Ranieri since has been graceless, at least publicly. Amid the endless vaunting of his own achievements in delivering Chelsea their first league for almost 50 years would be sly references to how much better he had done at Stamford Bridge than his immediate predecessor. The rest is history. English fans still remembered Ranieri as a likeable sort, but much of English football became transfixed by the darker plotlines given to it almost each week by Mourinho.
Last season, with Mourinho's touchdown on the runway of Italian football, Ranieri was obliged to take a position in Mourinho's rear-view mirror. Ranieri was by then in charge of the promoted Juventus, his third job since departing London; Mourinho had been handed the task of guiding the champions, Inter Milan.
The Portuguese coach would often send messages to Ranieri through the media. They were drawn from a schoolyard book of insults. Ranieri, he reminded anybody who cared to listen, had struggled to speak English as fluently after four years at Chelsea as Mourinho managed within a few months. Ranieri, Mourinho also pointed out, had won no league titles even though "he is nearly 70", whereas Mourinho had triumphed in Portugal, with Porto, and in the Premier League. The wheels fell off in the spring and Ranieri was sacked. Mourinho won the title while picking arguments with other enemies.
So when Ranieri answered the question, late on Sunday, 'How are you feeling?', he reached back to some of that history. "Well," he smiled, "I'm feeling better than a year ago." This morning, with five matches left of the 2009/10 season, his Roma team are top of the table, with Mourinho's Inter in their rear-view mirror.
It has been a magnificent pursuit. Roma approached their 2-1 win over Atalanta on Sunday at the Stadio Olimpico desperate to exploit Inter's 2-2 draw at Fiorentina the evening before. They scored both their goals within the first half-hour and held on to their lead through some tense later moments after Simone Tiribocchi pulled a goal back for Atalanta for their fifth successive victory and their 23rd game without defeat in the Italian top-flight.
Rewind to the back of that unbeaten run and you get to the end of October 2009, when Roma had gathered a mere 11 points from their first 10 matches. Ranieri had taken over after two defeats in Roma's first pair of games of the campaign - and trailed Inter by a full 14 points. At that stage, Mourinho could barely glimpse his old sparring partner in his rear-view mirror.
Now Mourinho chokes on Roma's exhaust fumes.
"There are tough games to come, but the scudetto is in our hands now," beamed Ranieri.
sports@thenational.ae
About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
Results
1. New Zealand Daniel Meech – Fine (name of horse), Richard Gardner – Calisto, Bruce Goodin - Backatorps Danny V, Samantha McIntosh – Check In. Team total First round: 200.22; Second round: 201.75 – Penalties 12 (jump-off 40.16 seconds) Prize €64,000
2. Ireland Cameron Hanley – Aiyetoro, David Simpson – Keoki, Paul Kennedy – Cartown Danger Mouse, Shane Breen – Laith. Team total 200.25/202.84 – P 12 (jump-off 51.79 – P17) Prize €40,000
3. Italy Luca Maria Moneta – Connery, Luca Coata – Crandessa, Simone Coata – Dardonge, Natale Chiaudani – Almero. Team total 130.82/198.-4 – P20. Prize €32,000
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
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Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company profile
Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space
Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)
Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)
Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution)
Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space
Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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