Robert Exley
Anyone christened ‘the special one’ at my school never took it as a compliment. For José Mourinho, however, it was a term with which he christened himself on arrival to the UK in 2004 and he revelled in it. José was born into a footballing family – his father, Félix Mourinho, was goalkeeper for Portuguese sides Belenenses and Vitoria Setubal. Félix earned one cap for Portugal and later coached Rio Ave, where José was given his chance as a player but where, according to most reviews, he had been extremely mediocre – often described as a centre half with no skill or pace (probably of the Pascal Cygan/Sebastian Squillaci kind that Mr Wenger seems to be all too keen on signing!). However, they say that one thing that young José had in his locker was a great deal of determination, most probably a by-product of living in the shadow of his father’s footballing achievements and the typically pushy parentage of his bourgeois upbringing, particularly on his mother’s side. In Mourinho’s own words: “When you come from a comfortable family, the emphasis is ‘you must study’ “.
Félix Mourinho, like most footballers, came from working-class stock as the son of a ship’s cook. José’s mother’s side of the family, however, was the nearest thing to Portuguese aristocracy, with mansions and servants to boot. Mourinho’s great uncle, Mario Ledo, had built up a fortune as a sardine canning factory boss under Antonio Salazar’s ‘Estado Novo’ regime, which, at its core, was a Portuguese version of Mussolini-style corporatist fascism. Ledo had used part of his fortune to fund the construction of Vitoria Setubal’s stadium. Most of the family’s wealth, however, was seized after the bloodless left wing military coup of the ‘Carnation Revolution’ which overthrew the Estado Novo regime in 1974, when José was only eleven. They did however get to retain one rather large mansion in the Palmela region of Portugal, and his mother had continually drummed it into young José that big things were expected of him.
As his father took over the reins at Rio Ave, young José had followed the side by whatever means possible. As his father Félix would state “José would always find a way to turn up wherever I was. By coach, or even fish transport truck, he would always be with me somehow for the weekend matches”. Félix would also explain how he would help out his father in the scouting department, rather much like Andre Villas Boas would later do on José’s behalf with his ‘Opponent Observational Department’ stating that: “He started to watch the teams we were going to play and prepare reports, and that helped me a lot. I remember that, when I was manager at União de Madeira, we went to play away in Amadora. We needed at least a draw to reach the play-offs for a place in the top division of the Portuguese League. José watched their training sessions for a whole week and the advice he gave me was instrumental in my team getting a 0-0 draw. I was very happy with his assistance”.
José did make it on the books of his father’s Rio Ave side, later following Félix to Belenenses; however a match against Sporting Lisbon in 1982 for Rio Ave was symbolic of his impact on the pitch. While warming up against Sporting Lisbon, an injury to a Rio Ave player had meant that Félix summoned his son to the dressing room to get changed. Rio Ave’s club president José Maria Pinho, on learning that José Mourinho was to be utilised, had issued an ultimatum to Félix: either rescind his decision or both he and José were fired. A humiliated Mourinho had watched the match from the stands as Rio Ave lost 7-1. Young José eventually abandoned dreams of making it as a player, but, in order to avoid his life being defined by such a failure, he still harboured dreams of coaching. However, his pushy mother had other ideas. While he was still playing in the Portuguese second division with Sesimbra, she chose to enrol him into business school, though José pulled out after one day and enrolled onto a Sports Science course at the Technical University of Lisbon in which he excelled.
After graduation, José then had a spell as Assistant Manager with Estrela Da Amadora and Ovarense, until his big moment came when Bobby Robson was appointed manager of Sporting Lisbon in 1992. Robson had sought out an English speaking interpreter on appointment, a role which Mourinho snapped up, building a close rapport with the former England manager. Mourinho followed Robson to FC Porto and then later to Barcelona, where Robson made Mourinho’s employment a contractual obligation on taking the job. When Robson left Barcelona in 1998, Mourinho remained under Louis Van Gaal until 2000, when he took the reins at Benfica. His spell at the Lisbon super club ended abruptly when the newly-elected club president refused to extend his contract. There then followed a nine-month spell at União de Leiria before being appointed FC Porto manager in January 2002. In just two years and a half years at Porto, Mourinho won the UEFA Cup and European Cup in successive seasons and headed off to a newly-minted Chelsea side winning back-to-back Premiership titles. After a personality clash with Roman Abramovich, Mourinho then headed to Inter, winning another Champions League in 2010, and later moved to Real Madrid which, after an underwhelming season by the special one’s standards, still reaped the Spanish Cup.
The Case in Favour of José Mourinho
If you look up winner in the dictionary, it may well show a picture of José Mourinho. Many have accused Mourinho of winning by spending vast sums of cash; however, he won the Champions League in 2004 on a relative pittance by Champions League standards. In fact, outside the four richest leagues in Europe - England, Italy, Spain and Germany – FC Porto are only one of two sides to win Europe’s top prize under the Champions League format, the other being Ajax in 1995. Mourinho also went to Chelsea in 2004 as a second preference after failing to secure the Liverpool job, stating in April of that year that “Liverpool are a team that interests everyone and Chelsea does not interest me so much because it is a new project with lots of money invested in it. I think it is a project which, if the club fail to win everything, then Abramovich could retire and take the money out of the club. It's an uncertain project. It is interesting for a coach to have the money to hire quality players but you never know if a project like this will bring success”. His career has also crossed national boundaries with ease – from Portugal to England and then on to Italy, while riding a wave of success.
Mourinho’s modus operandi is methodical, with considerable attention to detail – in essence, if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail. Mourinho also has enormous charisma that not only has the ability to inspire those under his wing but also attract Europe’s top talent. From day one of arriving in England, Mourinho drew immediate comparisons with Brian Clough, who famously stated with zero modesty that ‘I’m not saying I was the greatest but I was definitely in the top one’. Mourinho’s equivalent quote after his Champions League victory in 2004 had been: ”the UEFA Champions League trophy, God and, after God, me”. Mourinho is also still under the age of 50, with a considerable amount of trophy-winning experience under his belt, meaning that he has time on his side to develop further still.
All of Arsenal’s managers are measured by the yardstick of Herbert Chapman’s innovation in the world of football, to such an extent that lesser men in the managerial stakes, such as Billy Wright, would be seen shaking their fist at the physical embodiment of this standard - Herbert’s bust. For José, however, his intention of being an innovator dates back to his formative days in coaching. As Jason Cowley had stated in his 2005 New Statesman article citing Mourinho as ‘Man of the Year’, “he wanted to redefine the role (of a coach), to become a football technocrat: theoretician, psychologist, motivator….. Mourinho is now celebrated for his attention to detail, for his PowerPoint presentations and for the way he monitors and communicates with his players, sending them memos and motivational messages, and staying in touch with them, when they are away from the club, through e-mail and texts”.
The case against José Mourinho
If you look up winning while playing unwatchable football in the dictionary, it may well also show a picture of José Mourinho. After six trophyless seasons, it may be tempting to accept a trophy win by any means necessary. However, many of us have memories of the latter Graham years, where trophy wins were met with a twinge of anti-climax – particularly 240 minutes of the 1993 FA Cup final, which for about 230 minutes of its life had been the footballing equivalent of watching paint dry. Winning by any means necessary is also not necessarily successful off the pitch either. On George Graham’s exit, David Dein had seen it as not merely enough to win trophies but also to produce a brand of football people actually wanted to watch. Although José’s exit from Stamford Bridge had largely came about through an almighty clash of egos between him and Abramovich, it was also partly inspired by the fact that if, Chelsea were to meet their break-even target of 2010 and become a global brand, they needed a brand of football that people actually wanted to watch.
A major blow to the front of ‘Mourinismo’ has also been the fact that José’s Real Madrid has been put to the sword by Pep Guardiola and a Barcelona side that many believe to be among the greatest exhibitionists of total football the world has ever seen. In 2008, when Barcelona had sacked Frank Rijkaard, it flirted with the idea of bringing back into the fold the man they derided many years earlier as the ‘interpreter’, which would in essence go against the grain of their Cruyff-inspired ‘total football’. As described in the Daily Mirror in April 2010 by Guillem Balague, who many may know from his punditry on Sky Sports’ coverage of La Liga, ”when it became clear that the Barcelona coach's predecessor had given his stars too much freedom and that complacency was costing them points, two out of the three most important people at Barcelona decided that José Mourinho was the right man to restore order. The money-men also calculated that the Portuguese boss would merge the two very powerful brands Barcelona and Mourinho: allowing them to conquer international and domestic markets”.
Barça, however, have hardly regretted choosing Guardiola’s brand of football over Mourinho’s, as their choice has resulted in enormous success both on the pitch and in a marketing sense. Though Mourinho’s Inter had slayed Barça in 2010 on the way to victory, under Mourinho’s charge, Real were routed 5-0 earlier this season and dumped out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage by Guardiola’s Barça. Guardiola knows Mourinho well from his days as a Barcelona player in the late 90s, when the special one learned his trade as assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal and, in some ways, may well have adopted much of his attention to detail. With Guardiola and also with what another former José disciple, Andre Villas Boas, may well develop into in time, a form of football Darwinism may well be at work, where those of an attacking mind-set have merged their outlook with José’s methodical attention to detail. Last season may well be a watershed moment that could make Mourinho redundant in the long term.
Final Assessment: 6/10 – Mourinho at Arsenal? No way José! I’d certainly take his ideas on defending over what’s currently on offer at Arsenal. I’d also take his attention to detail and bloody - mindedness to win. Where we have a manager who suggested he would be happy to come second for the next 20 years, Mourinho’s outlook is encapsulated in his reaction to defeating United in 2005: ”I saw their players and manager go for a lap of honour after losing to us in their last home game. In Portugal, if you do this, they throw bottles at you”. That said, I want an Arsenal manager who marries these qualities to an entertaining product you’d actually want to pay the entrance fee for. To paraphrase Eric Cantona’s famous quote in a 1995 TV ad: ‘I’d rather play football!’
