After Manchester United scored twice in injury time to lift the European Cup and complete the historic treble in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson could barely remember his words, choosing to display his joy with the gruff, rudimentary vocabulary: “Football. Bloody hell.”
On the other hand, the club’s legends have a tendency to reach out for philosophical motifs when the events of the ontological plane become too dreary to bear, as Eric Cantona – footballing genius, philosopher and stiff-collar enthusiast – displayed at a presser with one arcane utterance: "When seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”
The remark came after he kicked an unruly fan and was given an eight-month ban. Perhaps, the desire to explain and understand suffering requires more effort from the prefrontal cortex than celebrating joy, which probably explains why Mourinho, under fire from all quarters, chose to reach out for a greater being.
Still chastening from the spanking by Tottenham Hotspurs, compounded in his mind by the board’s refusal to buy him a new centre-back, Mourinho, the self-proclaimed Special One reminded everyone that he was ‘one of the greatest managers’ of the world. And he quoted Herr Hegel to make his point.
Mourinho reminded everyone that he has won eight league titles in four different countries. When asked if he would be considered one of the greatest, he claimed: “Of course. Did you read any philosopher? You spent time reading Hegel. Just as an example Hegel says: ‘The truth is in the whole,’ is always in the whole.”
He went on to add: “We are the last team in England to win a European cup. I won eight titles (overall), I am the only manager in the world that won in Italy, Spain and England and not small titles or countries; and last season, I repeat, my second position last season is one of my greatest achievements in football.”
For the uninitiated, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is the pre-eminent German philosopher whose contributions to Western philosophy is unparalleled. He is to Western philosophy what Johan Cryuff is to Total Football, the big daddy so to speak and all great Western philosophical ideas of the 20th century including Marx (communism), Nietzsche (existentialism) and Freud (psychoanalysis) had their beginnings in Hegel.
To this author, who has grown up in the state of Bengal which the communists drove to ruin with their outdated ideology, Hegel reminds one of a popular quote Bengalis spout about these philosophical icons: “Hegel hege gelo, Marx merei fello (Hegel shat on us, Marx then killed us)”
But economic capitulation in Bengal aside, Hegel is the wrong philosophical muse for Mourinho and Manchester United right now. Frederick Nietzsche would be far apter.
There’s no denying that self-appointed Special One was one of the greatest managers in world football. But the operative word here is ‘was’.
The former translator has shown himself to be a highly-capable tactician winning laurels across the globe.
But the Manchester United board hired him they thought they were hiring a Nietzschean Ubermensch (Superman) manager, and not one who would instead be spouting ‘God is Dead’ all the time.
Mourinho has always been high on drama, the Shakespearean equivalent of John Milton’s Satan from Paradise Lost, always crying: “Why have you forsaken me?”
Since being cast out from football’s ‘heaven’ (Cryuff’s Barcelona), the former translator has gone out of his way to be the anti-Barcelona waging war and losing against Cryuff’s heir Guardiola. That his bete noir is just down the road and taking Man City to greater heights seems to send him on a downward spiral.
The arrogant, self-assured one has instead become a mewling child, and his constant hammering about his CV, only a reminder of how he has fallen, quite like a grown man banging on about a class test he aced in Grade VI.
When Nietzsche wrote ‘God is Dead’, he didn’t mean it in the literal sense, but that the idea of Christian Enlightenment was over. It’s the same for Mourinho and Manchester United.
The club’s only great performances so far since Ferguson retired have been off the field and would please Mammon and shareholders more than the club’s fans.
The great football club has become a capitalistic utopia, converting every single drop of supporter goodwill into a commercial deal. Some fans might point to the Europa League win, but honestly would any Manchester United fan be happy with the club even playing Europe 2nd tier competition? The goodwill that the club has earned after years of never-say-die performances is slowly petering away.
Mourinho is at Manchester United because of the gardens he has cultivated in the past, but he won’t be sticking around if the flowers refuse to bloom at his current one.
The Portuguese might have been one of the greatest managers of all time, won Europe’s biggest trophy with less-fancied teams, but if he were to retire tomorrow without winning anything at Manchester United, then we’d remember Mourinho the manager, as who was once great and then failed majestically.
In fact, some harsh fans wouldn’t think twice before uttering the phrase he had reserved for Wenger – a specialist in failure. Banging on about his CV or quoting Hegel won’t change that fact.
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 "Jose Mourinho")
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