Two guys called Jose, two winning machines

Jose Mourinho must be having a right laugh to himself. As only he could. While his Tottenham team at the very least keep pace with immensely endowed Liverpool, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer lurches from one disaster to the next. After it initially looked like things had fallen into place as predicted – Mourinho out of touch and losing his touch, Solksjaer the homecoming hero – the tables have turned. Dramatically. United currently sit one place off half way in the Premiership table. And have been lower. Spurs on the other hand look to be manufacturing a sustainable title challenge.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, it would appear the original Special One has also sprinkled his dust on another sporting arena entirely. On bursting from basically darting anonymity to Grand Slam Champion, the Special One II said the original of the species had been in touch around the time of his breakthrough triumph.

You suspect the two special Portuguese men will be convening again after the tungsten thrower moved further up the sport’s pecking order by defeating Ross Smith in the concluding fixture for Thursday at a now sadly deserted Alexandra Palace.

Elsewhere on the evening ‘card’ inside the London venue, Jamie Lewis of Wales put together a remarkable comeback to oust a resurgent Luke Woodhouse, Ron Muelenkamp made his wasteful opponent Boris Krcmar pay the price. All of the preceding, though, only served as an appetiser for what, in my view was the best contest seen in these Championships thus far between Ryan Searle and the American Danny Lauby.

Sky Sports described the encounter as a ‘Corker’ and, not only is the afixed labelling very apt, Searle was involved in a very similar tangle last season when going within the width of a wire of dispatching two time champion Gary Anderson.

Englishman Searle – whose eyesight is fairly seriously impaired, bears a striking similarity to Jack Black while, in my view, his throwing style almost mirrors that of Adrian Lewis. Don’t be surprised if he hits the jackpot again before the turn of the year.