September 19, 2019

The rise and fall of the ‘Special One’

December 20, 2018
Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho announced himself to world football on Tuesday the 9th of March, 2004 when his little fancied Porto went to Old Trafford and knocked Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United out of the Champions league. Everyone’s first memory of Mourinho appears to be seeing him run down the touchline at Old Trafford,  punching the air as he celebrated Francisco Cortinho’s last minute  equaliser that qualified Porto for the next round at the expense of Manchester United. FC Porto went on to win the trophy that year. It is thus ironic that Mourinho’s illustrious career as a top of the league manager seems to have ended at the time he was the lord of the manor at the same grounds where it officially took off, Manchester United.

It is correct to say Mourinho has been sacked at other clubs before and he went on to others, after all, he joined United shortly after he was sacked by Chelsea. The truth is, the nature of how he was sacked at United and the stories that heralded the sack are too damaging. Mourinho may well get another top club after this sack , rumours are that two of his former clubs,  Real Madrid and Inter Milan are interested in re-signing him, however, surely, this will be his last chance.

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Future employers will start to look so much closer into his CV. They will discover he was sacked in his last three jobs. They will discover that he is not a team player, because at Chelsea (twice), Madrid and Manchester United, he was sacked mainly because he lost the dressing room. He was sacked because he started bringing the fight home, he managed to turn virtually everyone involved in the respective clubs’ affairs against him.

Mourinho once was the envy of all other managers. He was considered the best manager in the world. He won 25 major trophies with different clubs and in different countries. He was voted FIFA’s World Coach of the year in 2010, he was voted Portugal’s coach of the Century. When you think of this and his other achievements, you start to wonder how the special one who used to inspire players to go the extra mile to greatness has now been reduced to a laughing stock.

Personally, I believe he is a victim of his own ego. Mourinho always wants to be the most loved and celebrated person in any club he is. He always wants to take all the credit for whatever success comes at the club. Whenever praise is given to someone else especially the players, ahead of him, he would not be able to stomach it. He will go out of his way to belittle the player (s). He never considers how his personal attack would affect the team. To him, Mourinho is more important than the team.

Once his special place as the special one is threatened, he goes to the media to attack his perceived enemy. This strategy could have worked a few years ago with the old school players but in these days of Twitter, Instagram and other avenues of social media, it is a no no. The new generation of football players need to be treated differently from the old crew, this is something Mourinho doesn’t seem to understand. This is something future employers will put into consideration before they ask for his services.

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Secondly, I believe Mourinho’s recent failures and subsequent dismissals are linked to his greed. Whenever he gets bored with a club or he sees that things are no longer going his way, instead of him to look for ways to improve or better still, resign, he will be making plans for his compensation. He will be calculating how much he will be paid if he is sacked. He will be doing everything to ensure he is sacked.

This includes starting fights with everybody in the team, from the director through the players to the physio. In his greed, he seems to forget about his CV, he seems to forget how it will look on his in a few months’ time that he appears to get sacked from his previous job. In a world where managers like Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino get employed by great clubs due to their achievements at their previous clubs, it is becoming extremely stupid for a manager to do all he can to get sacked simply because he wants his compensation and believes he will get another job.

If you had great jobs at great clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester United and you messed up leading to your sack, it will get to a stage where club owners will start to question whether you are worth the effort and money. It appears Mourinho has worked himself into that position. Well, like we always say, time will tell.

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