Don’t be too shocked…he did say he was special.
Not many people knew what to make of him when Jose Mourinho became Chelsea manager in June 2004. He seemed suave confident and maybe a little arrogant? Then he proclaimed “Please to not call me arrogant..But I am the special one”. Okay definitely arrogant! However anyone who was keeping an eye on European football couldn’t help but notice what this young manager was doing at Porto.
Mourinho guided Porto to the title,the domestic cup, the super cup as well as winning the Uefa cup beating Martin O’Neil’s Celtic 3-2 in a fantastic final. That was impressive but the very next season he took that same Porto team into the Champions League…..and only went and won it dancing down touchlines along the way! And let’s be frank here that was not a very good Porto team by any means. Them winning the Uefa cup was a shock. The only thing special about that team was the manager.
Mourinho’s tactical knowledge and ability to man manage players has made his teams successful. He did it at Porto ,Chelsea and just last weekend he did it with Inter Milan. Again like Porto this year’s Champions of Europe can’t be described as a fantastic team who we will remember in years to come. They are however extremely well organised and extremely hard to beat. This season Mourinho has made the likes of Samuel, Chivu, Pandev and Lucio seem like world class hot commodities. They really aren’t! But that’s what he does..Every man knows there job and is drilled and worked in such a way that they do it very well. Inter didn’t dazzle the big stages of Europe this season far from it, their memorable performances were defensive ones (Stamford Bridge, The Nou Camp).
Some people including myself at times cringe at the way Mourinho’s teams go about playing the game. It isn’t good to watch it is boring, efficient, dull..But very effective! Yes Mourinho would rather play ugly and win than attack and possibly lose but it works for him. At 47 he has one two European Cups the Uefa cup as well as league titles and Cups in Portugal, England and Italy and more than likely next season in Spain. Whatever you think of him his record is truely outstanding.
He has proved he is just a bit special and has already informed the Spanish media that he will win La Liga with Real next season even though Pelligrini is still the manager. That’s Jose though he doesn’t mind being the bad guy. He could be the bad guy for a while at Madrid while they are forced to get used to his brand of football which goes against the style of Madrid since their foundation really!? One thing is for sure though he will definitely turn the phenomenal underachieving “Galacticos” into a winning team, no doubt about it. And if you are wondering if I think Mourinho would be an ideal replacement for Sir Alex at Manchester United the answer would be……….Not until he plays the game like football instead of chess! However there is no doubt he is a little special.
