Mourinho is known by many as a world-class coach. Whether they like him or not, it is clear that the man is a good coach. Currently, Mourinho is without a team after being fired in the middle of an awful season with Chelsea FC. When he was fired in December, the team was sitting in 16th place. This was extremely shocking on so many levels. Chelsea, the prior year, were the champions of the league. Many expected the team to repeat. Yet, under Mourinho the team looked unmotivated and frankly tired of his style. Mourinho is a very polarizing character. Many love him, but at the same time more hate him whether it is players, coaches, or fans. It was reported that Mourinho would be owed anywhere from $28-58 million if he were to remain unemployed over the next four years. While although unlikely, it does show how much money the man can be worth in the right environment.
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| Mourinho and Bobby Robson at press conference |
I think it is vital to stress the right environment. Mourinho is not a man that a team looks for on a long term plan. The man has coached 6 different clubs (Chelsea twice) in his 15 years of coaching. But that shouldn't take away from his success with all of these clubs. Mourinho's path to success, though, is quite different than any that you may have heard of before. Mourinho had a brief professional playing career. Soon after, he was looking to get into coaching. He coached a team which was equivalent to a high school level here in the U.S. Yet, soon after, an English coach was coaching a Portuguese team. With that, the coach (Bobby Robson, who is an English legend, but let's not get into that), needed a translator. Now this is where Mourinho came in. Mourinho really started his career as a translator for Bobby Robson. He followed him around to a variety of clubs in Portugal and eventually Spain at FC Barcelona. Prior to this move, Mourinho served as the man in charge of press conferences and practices for the non-english speaking players. At Barcelona, though, Mourinho began to have a bigger role and began really becoming a coach. As Robson's time at the club came to an end, though, Mourinho stayed with Barcelona. Now van Gaal (yes the guy who I ranted about in a prior blog) allowed Mourinho to coach Barcelona B, the reserve team filled with all the promising youngsters at the club. After a ton of success with the club, Mourinho eventually became a head coach in his home country. Mourinho took over mid-season at Porto and vowed to make them great again. With that, within 2 years, Mourinho took Porto and they won the Champions League in 2004. Now this is where Mourinho became known globally. After that season, Mourinho moved to Chelsea for his first stint with the club. At this time, Mourinho's personality really came out.
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| Mourinho and Van Gaal |
Mourinho brings a lot of controversy with his success on the field. The man picks fights with not only coaches (most famously Arsne Wegner from Arsenal) but the media as well. Mourinho is well known to many soccer players as being able to explode on media members at a drop of a dime. Although comical to many, Mourinho experienced the full wrath and power of the media when he got fired recently. On the other hand, as I mentioned earlier about how polarizing this man really is, he is beloved by many fans at Chelsea, who were not happy when he was fired. As well as being loved by fans, Mourinho is known to be great friends with Sir Alex Ferguson (also talked about in a prior blog). Mourinho is a tough man to understand. He provides comedy, rivalry and most importantly, trophies for the teams he coaches.
With all that, you might ask, why did you write this blog? Well I made it clear that I am a Manchester United fan. As I said in a prior blog I want van Gaal to be fired. Rumors have it that Mourinho is to be United's coach next season. So much so, that there is a report out there that the club and the coach have a pre-contract and that if "The Special One" is not the coach, he is owed $21 million by the club. As such, with his past success and my personal liking to the coach. I honestly can't wait for this appointment to happen.
Here is a video of Mourinho's antics with the media:
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