Reported By:
| Edited By: Nirmalya Dutta |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Nov 04, 2019, 06:51 PM IST
It is quite fitting that Jose Mourinho, the man who was deemed too hellish to become Barcelona coach has now become the manager of Manchester United, the team known as the Red Devils. Ever since Jose Mourinho slid on the Old Trafford turf after knocking United out of the Champions League, we knew how would become something special.
Mourinho, who learned the tricks of the trade as an interpreter for Bobby Robson and then assistant manager of Louis Van Gaal at Barcelona, was cast aside in choice of Pep Guardiola, the man who was deemed to have created the purest form of football. But Mourinho’s appointment as Manchester United's coach is a tale worthy of a Greek tragedy.
The Special One, as he would christen himself, started his journey way back in 1992 when Bobby Robson took Mourinho under his wing who’d work for him as a translator at Sporting Lisbon. So impressed was Robson with the former PE teacher’s intelligence and footballing knowledge, he took him along to Barcelona FC in what has been described by some as the greatest coaching seminar of all time.
Mourinho was taken on as assistant manager by Robson’s successor (and ironically the man Mou will replace) Louis van Gaal. The group there included players like Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique (both have managed Barcelona), Phillip Cocu (PSV Eindhoven), Frank de Boer (former Ajax manager) and assistant coach Ronald Koeman (current Southampton manager).
Barcelona manager Bobby Robson with Jose Mourinho & Ronaldo lift the European Cup Winners Cup 1997 @VintageFooty pic.twitter.com/eVx3sSrlpD — Richie Yemie Eruola (@RichieYemie) February 18, 2016
Mourinho would stick out on his own in 2000, going on to manage Benfica for a while and then Uniao Leiria before landing the job at Porto in 2002-03. What followed next would rewrite the annals of football as Mourinho first led Porto to the UEFA Cup that year before winning the UEFA Champions League with Porto in 2003-04, making him one of the most sought after managers in Europe.
Interestingly, in the same season that Mourinho was leading Porto to the UEFA Cup, a Russian billionaire named Roman Abramovic was watching Manchester United and Real Madrid play out a 4-3 victory which thrilled the Russian so much that he ended up buying Chelsea FC.
The Old Trafford faithful would have their first sighting of Mourinho in the 2003-2004 UEFA Champions League season when he announced himself to the English press, with a thrilling slide on the sidelines as Porto knocked the mighty Manchester United out of the Champions League. The match saw an arrogant side of Mourinho who never showed his fangs to either Sir Alex Ferguson or Manchester United. He always treated both the club and the chairman with deference, one that was non-existent for his other rivals like Arsene Wenger or Rafa Benitez.
Bobby Robson #FCB cuadro 1996-97Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Laurent Blanc y Jose Mourinho todos #foton @Bambino627 pic.twitter.com/umvATvy30T — Laura #Garracharrua (@LBCeleste) January 24, 2016
In the 2004-05 season, Mourinho was seemingly given the keys to the kingdom by Roman Abramovich, as he proposed to bankroll Chelsea to the top of the Premier League. While Roman’s Chelsea won the title in the next two years, they failed in the Champions League and the Russian seemed to feel he wasn’t getting a bang for his buck and should get a little more entertainment from a team which had cost so much to assemble.
The relationship broke down and Mourinho was gone by September 2007, the same season the Red Devils would do a double. And then came the moment when Mourinho would be cast out like Milton’s protagonist.
Johan Cryuff is seen as the founder of the Ajax-Barcelona way of pure football (Getty Images)
Barcelona had fired Rijkaard at the end of the 2007-08 season and were looking for a replacement. It became a direct showdown between Mourinho and the man who’d become his arch-nemesis, Pep Guardiola. Bergiristain, Barcelona's erstwhile technical director, interviewed Jose but told him the final decision would be Johan Cryuff’s, the founder of the Barcelona-Ajax system of football, which many purists deem as the highest level of football. Determined, Mourinho called Laporta the president and asked to speak with Cruyff who instead told him that Barcelona had picked the inexperienced Guardiola and Mourinho unwittingly became the Satan of modern football.
He stood alone as anti-Barcelona, among the group of coaches and players who were there at Barcelona during Van Gaal’s ‘greatest coaching seminar' tenure. Mourinho’s career started to closely resemble Milton’s version of Satan from Paradise Lost who made it his business to ‘reign in Hell’ as he waged a war against God (Johan Cryuff) and his chosen heir (Pep Guardiola).
Milton’s Satan was more a tragic hero than villain, often showing immense courage and a lack of defined morals. Mourinho has seen himself as a tragic hero, a man who is constantly picked on by the entire world - the opposition, the media and the authorities.
While the Barcelona-Ajax system focussed on possession and silken touches, Mourinho has been accused of being the chief deity of anti-football, the man willing to win at all costs, even if it means stifling play or parking the bus or playing dirty (even though most neutral observers will point out Barcelona have played dirty plenty of times themselves). Rejected by Barcelona, he made his way to Inter Milan where he won the Serie A and then the treble with Inter, knocking Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona en route to the final.
Mourinho was at his Machiavellian best to knock out Pep Guardiola out of the Champions League in 2010 (Getty Images)
In fact, if there was one match that epitomised Mourinho’s career, it was the 1-0 loss at Camp Nou (winning 3-2 on aggregate) in the 2010 UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg as a man down Inter put up the greatest defensive performance against Pep’s angels. Barcelona failed to win despite Inter only having 24% of the possession.
Mourinho’s performance would catch Real Madrid’s eyes, where he ended up in the opposite end of the El Classic derby and brought out some of Mourinho’s lowest moments as manager. At one point, he even poked assistant manager Vilanova in the eye, but Mourinho's tenure was the only time Real Madrid won the La Liga in the last eight years (Barcelona won 6, Atletico 1).
One book claimed Mourinho couldn't believe Sir Alex had picked Moyes over him (Getty Images)
That is when he experienced the second disappointment as Sir Alex Ferguson picked David Moyes to succeed him instead of Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford. This was déjà vu for Jose as he felt he had again been overlooked for an inferior manager and a controversial book claims that Mourinho bawled when he heard he wasn't the Sir Alex's successor.
Sir Alex's book instead claimed that Mourinho had already decided to return to Chelsea where he declared himself the Happy One. Since then, things didn't work out for Jose Mourinho (despite one Premier League win) or for Manchester United, who’ve finished 7th, 4th and 5th, in the last three seasons, to finally call upon the only man they deemed worthy enough to revive the brand.
All the scruples insiders had about Mourinho’s alleged transgressions were washed away in the face of abject failure and going down what could be described as Liverpool way of mid-table mediocrity. The very thought appeared enough to jolt the powers-that-be at Old Trafford as they sacked his former boss to make way for the Special One at Old Trafford.
Jose Mourinho gives his first Manchester United interview (MAN UTD Facebook page)
Mourinho talked up his United chances in his first interview promising fans that he’d help them forget the last three years. He said: "It comes in the right moment in my career because Manchester United is one of these clubs where you need really to be prepared for it because it is what I used to call a giant club. Giant clubs must be for the best managers and I think I'm ready for it... We can look at our club now into two perspectives: one perspective is the past three years and another perspective is the club history," he said.
"I think I prefer to forget the past three years. I think I prefer to focus on the giant club I have in my hands now." Mourinho said. "What the players need to listen is: I want to win," he said. "I need the supporters and the players to feel I say that, but I think we can -- really." He said he would "give what I have, and what I don't have -- so I will give absolutely everything to try and go in the direction we all want".
He signed off saying, "I think I know what they can give me. I think also they know what I can give them... I'm happy, I'm proud, I'm honoured, I'm everything."
José Mourinho: “Every time I play Pep I end up with 10 men. It must be some sort of Uefa rule.” pic.twitter.com/jLmMTVUXuH — Theatre of Dreams (@MUFC_621958) May 23, 2016
Can Manchester United be Mourinho’s redemption? Will he define himself beyond being the anti-Barcelona of modern football? Or will he use the Red Devils’ resources to destroy the vision of football that Barcelona believes in, even as he belittles his former colleague Pep Guardiola who is just across town in Manchester City? Will he manage to prove that he is indeed the superior coach by stopping the tiki-taka revolution that the Sheiks have dreamt of by appointing former Barcelona personnel Txiki Begiristain (director of football), Ferran Soriano (chief executive) and now Pep Guardiola?
Only time will tell. With two of the greatest football coaches ever in the same town, the one assurance is that this is not going to be boring by any stretch of the imagination.
