the opening leg in Seville. United fans expected their team to attack
inferior opponents, but Mourinho settled for a 0-0 draw.
“His tactics were too small-time,” Luckhurst recalls of that first leg.
“Pogba had been unwell going into it, but it was still a bombshell
when Scott McTominay was selected ahead of him, and I suspect it
wasn’t entirely fitness-related. The Sevilla matches coincided with
Mourinho and Pogba being at loggerheads, big-time.
“Pogba didn’t start the second leg either, and United just
didn’t turn up – they were rigid, immobile. It was one of the club’s
worst post-Ferguson performances. There were so many things
going on in the background, and you wonder whether that all took
its toll.”
Exactly as it had for Chelsea against Atletico Madrid, a 0-0 draw on
the road had left the Red Devils vulnerable to an away goal. Wissam
Ben Yedder scored, then scored again. Sevilla triumphed 2-1.
Mourinho’s relationship had deteriorated not just with Pogba but
with Anthony Martial, another fan favourite. The increasing age gap
made it harder for Mourinho, in his mid-50s, to be the elder brother
Desmond Morris discussed. Maybe Ferguson’s fatherly managerial
style was always destined to succeed for longer.“It’s probably why Jose reunited with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, having
managed him at Inter – because that was a manageable age gap,”
suggests Luckhurst. “Guys like Lampard, Terry and Drogba were all
born in a different era, as were his players at Inter. Now managers
have to manage millennials, and that’s a different kettle of fish. But
some simply refuse to change. At United, Mourinho wasn’t going to
bend over backwards to accommodate any players that he felt were
undermining him.”
Where once Mourinho’s centre-back signings were astute – Ricardo
Carvalho at Chelsea, Lucio at Inter, Raphael Varane at Real Madrid- Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof didn’t have the desired impact. Eager
to recruit another, be it Kalidou Koulibaly, Toby Alderweireld, Milan
Skriniar or Harry Maguire, he grew frustrated when the club couldn’t
or wouldn’t make a deal happen in the summer of 2018.
By the time Manchester United returned to the knockout stages
of the Champions League, to take on PSG, the team were struggling
domestically. Mourinho was gone.
TOTTEn HAM V S RB LEIPZIG 2020
“When a coach arrives in the middle of the season, it’s because
the team has problems”It’s an overcast winter’s afternoon in Enfield as FFT make our way
inside Spurs’ plush training ground, past the autograph hunters and
a woman wearing a Son Heung-min face mask.
Today, it’s Mourinho’s weekly press conference. Two days earlier,
his Spurs side had lost 1-0 at Southampton, home fans taunting him
with chants of ‘You’re not special any more’ and ‘You’re just a s**t
Pochettino’. He’d been shown a yellow card for arguing with Saints
goalkeeping coach Andrew Sparkes, and responded in typical Jose
fashion: “I was rude, but I was rude to an idiot.”
It was a sign that the combative Mourinho still lurks underneath,
despite arriving at Spurs in November as the Humble One, conscious
of the perception that his antagonistic time with Manchester United
had created. Spurs’ squad could have been forgiven for being wary
about which Jose they were going to get. The Portuguese was very
careful, too, perhaps; a man who’s had huge success as an impact
manager, now concerned about making such a great impact that
he upsets everyone from the start.
He has been the Humiliated One, too, tumbling embarrassingly
in front of the TV cameras on a visit to Wembley, then as he took to
the ice for the ceremonial start of a Russian ice hockey match. It’s
hard to imagine those moments ever happening to the unstoppable
Jose of his early career.
Had the past decade gone perfectly, Mourinho might never have
taken the Spurs job. He had turned them down when Martin Jol and
then Harry Redknapp moved on; now, he was in charge of a team
that was 11 points off the Premier League’s top four when Mauricio
Pochettino departed. The road to success may be long – something
the 57-year-old was keen to point out as he arrived for his weekly
press meeting, complete with bright purple gilet, contrasting starkly
with his ever whiter hair.
Before the defeat at Southampton, only Liverpool had collected
more points than Tottenham in Mourinho’s first weeks. In the
wake of that loss, he was, as always, keen to set the agenda.
“Yesterday I watched Liverpool, the best team in the world at this
moment, and I Googled it, just to confirm,” he explained. “Jurgen
Klopp arrived in October 2015. Eight transfer windows; lots of
players leaving; lots of players coming; time to introduce his
philosophy; and beautiful results as a result of fantastic work, step
by step.
“In the first season, they finished 8th. So we have to remain calm.
When a coach comes in the middle of the season, it’s because the
team has some problems.”
It’s the first time that Mourinho has taken over a new club midway
through a season since Porto in 2002. Back then, he won four games
on the bounce, then just two of his next nine matches – similar to
the sticky spell that Spurs have experienced recently.
“I see some similarities between Tottenham and our Porto team,
especially when it comes to preparing a talented squad to reach the
next level,” says Vitor Baia. “They should be patient, and success will“THIS ISn’T GOInG TO BE TYPICAL mOURInHO
WHERE HE BURSTS OnTO THE SCEnE, WInS
AnD LEAVES. HE’LL HAVE TO GIVE THE CLUB
FIVE YEARS. HE HASn’T DOnE THAT BEFORE”
Above “It’s your
fault, Eden” – Jose
endures more
semi-final woe in
2014 against
Atletico
84 The Managers FourFourTwo.com
JOSE
MOURInHO