Jose Mourinho made a name for himself after his treble-winning season at FC Porto. Before this, he was in charge of Benfica. Prior to leaving Benfica, he demanded a contract renewal at the club. He then left the club the following day for União de Leiria.
Before the end of his União de Leiria career, he made a promise to the club that he would stay put until the end of the season, then left in January that season for FC Porto.
When leaving Porto, Jose Mourinho met up with Roman Abramovic, to discuss a move to Chelsea, behind Porto president Pinto da Costa’s back, making his exit rather bitter-sweet. These actions were seen as a lack of respect towards the club from Mourinho, and the evidence was there early in his career that he had quite a large ego.
Mourinho then joined Chelsea, and enjoyed a superb start, however, when things started to go against him, he felt the pressure and failed to deal with it, as he had not experienced such failure before. He was sacked by Chelsea in 2007 following a run of bad results, and the manager reportedly dared Abramovic to sack him. It became clear that he was extremely pretentious and that he lacks respect.
At Inter Milan, success returned for the ‘special one’, and it was probably the first time in his career that he didn’t show a lack of respect to his club. Once decided that was going to leave Inter, he said:
I want to be the only coach to win the Champions League with three different clubs.
Although there is nothing wrong with setting personal aims and desiring to be the best, it does make Mourinho appear as if he doesn’t care for his clubs and lacks loyalty, and without loyalty, boredom will always take over, and failure will become inevitable.
When he joined Real Madrid, something drastically changed; he reportedly divided the dressing room against him, which ultimately affected results and he simply didn’t live up to Florentino Perez’ expectations, or his own. He had failed.
He started to publically criticise his players, Marcelo in particular. Defender, Pepe even publicly questioned Mourinho over his treatment of goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Mourinho was eventually sacked in 2013.
When joining Chelsea again, success returned in the second season, but Mourinho was sacked for the second time at Chelsea in the third after an awful first half of the season, which left them one point above the relegation zone.
He continued his habit of publicly criticising players, showing disrespect to the press and to his club, and for the second time in his career, he had lost the dressing room and all respect from the club, as he gave none to them.
I personally don’t see it as a coincidence that he has such a short career at the clubs he has managed. He lacks respect for anyone he comes across, his arrogance will always take over eventually and when things get tough, he deflects it on to his players and breaks relationships with them. His ideas, excuses and quotes are nonsensical and pretentious.
Each time he has been sacked from a club, it has followed from bad treatment of players and lack of respect for his superiors and his club. This will not change; he has too much pride to change his attitude, despite being sacked three times.
Since joining, Mourinho has improved Manchester United, particularly this season; results in the Premier League have been much better this term.
But I am not talking about results, I’m talking about why Mourinho is not a good fit for Manchester United and why he will ultimately fail.
His tactics are dated and poor. Manchester United have the players to attack the best teams, Mourinho has no belief in his team and makes that obvious. He claims to be about results, as opposed to entertainment, yet he isn’t bringing either. His record away to the ‘big six’ with Manchester United is abysmal, so how he can continue to say he gets results?
The games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace were brilliant, United looked like an old United side, however, I was laughed at for saying he got lucky against Liverpool. United weren’t lucky, they played well in the first half and deserved the win, but Mourinho was lucky, in the second half, he invited pressure instantly and if it wasn’t for Liverpool playing so poorly, United would have thrown it away.
My point was backed up against Sevilla. United, for 80 minutes had no intention to attack the defence, and they were punished, which suggests that unless United play an attacking game, the result is fully dependent on how the opponent plays.
Mourinho’s comments after the match were even more unforgivable; the lack of respect was unbelievable.
That’s football, that’s not the end of the world. I sit in this chair twice in the Champions League, and I knock out Man United at home, at Old Trafford. I sit in this chair with Porto; Man United out. I sit in this chair with Real Madrid; Man United out. So I don’t think this is something new for the club.
His attitude is poor, he publicly declares when he has given up on something.
He has become an angrier, more arrogant man as he has aged, and ironically, the more he has failed.
The treatment of his players, I think, is ridiculous, he often gets the best out of players he has criticised, but for the most part, he has the broken bonds, trust and respect of many players he has managed.
Mourinho used to be the ‘special one’, not anymore. He is likely to win trophies wherever he goes, but long-term success at one team is something he will probably never achieve.
