I know I'm going to fan some flames with this and I know that if RM wins tonight everyone will tell me how wrong I am, but I am getting sick of all of the praise this man receives. I have heard time and time again statements like "He is the best manager in the game" and "He is the best manager of all time." The more conservative praise is generally that once he has retired he will be viewed as the best of all time. Don't get me wrong, he is a very good manager, one of the best, but to even compare him to SAF yet, let alone call him the best manager of all time, is ludicrous.
Let's look at his record. True, he won at Porto and Benfica. But the Portuguese league is probably the most unbalanced league in the world other than the SPL. In the past decade, those are the only two teams with a shot at winning the title. He did win the Champions League in '04. This was his best achievement and a truly remarkable one. However, that was a very strange year in the Champions League (I mean, Monaco made the final) and he did have a lot of luck. Their group was an easy one if I remember correctly and he got lucky against an out-of-form, injured ManU in the knockout rounds, and he didn't have to face the Invincibles. He also had the easiest final opponent the in history of the competition. And let's not also forget that Porto is an extremely well-run club with good players who has played well in the Champions League since he left. It's not as if Mourinho was on the pitch.
Other than that his record has been good but taking into context where he has been, it's not super special. He came into a Chelsea team that was on the brink of being great. He had unlimited funds and basically created a fantasy football team. ManU and Arsenal were both in transition and he took a couple Prem titles. He couldn't take Chelsea to a Champions League final, getting knocked out in the first round once I believe and the other two times he was outwitted by Rafa Benitez. Then he lost a couple players, Chelsea was ****, and he left. Of all people, Avram Grant took over mid-season and he led Chelsea to the best record in the league for the time period of his tenure and took them farther in the Champions League than Mourinho ever did. Would have won it, too, if it wasn't for some incredibly bad luck. Years later the same, aging squad still wins Chelsea trophies. During these years, I don't think it took a genius to manage Chelsea to success.
Then he moves to Inter, and in his first season received more than plenty of criticism. Inter during those two seasons was by far the best team in Italy and had a world class squad (especially the second season), their only problem was that under Mancini they couldn't get it done in the Champions League. They had virtually no competition in Italy, as AC Milan struggled heavily during both of those seasons, and Juve is still recovering from calciopoli. Roma isn't exactly loaded with talent either. In his first season, he was constantly criticized because Inter wasn't anything special domestically and played exactly like they did under Mancini. Mourinho spent big on Quaresma, whom couldn't make any use out of. In the Champions League they were disappointing, getting knocked out in the first round and never really looking like they had a chance to advance. They won Serie A by default and couldn't win the cup.
Then Inter got very lucky with what was available in the transfer market. Real Madrid got rid of 3 great Dutchmen, and Inter was able to get Sneijder for relatively cheap. We all know how great of a player he is. Then, Eto'o and Barca had a disagreement over contracts so they had to get rid of him. They were able to swap Ibrahimovic, a very talented player who chokes in big games, for Eto'o, a proven winner. On top of that they got Diego Milito, a great finisher. Inter's squad last season was absolutely loaded with talent: definitely in the top 3 most talented teams in the world, and I think they were even more talented than the next most talented team, Barca, who had the treble hangover effect.
Inter goes out that season and plays like **** in Serie A. I watched them play many times, as I had Fox Soccer Channel, and was amazed at how consistently poor they were. Week in and week out they would play like **** and barely scrape out victories over lower-tier teams. They finally won the league on the last day, nothing special since they were so much more talented than the other teams in the league.
In the Champions League, they built Chelsea, who is a very good team but it's Mourinho's former team, and if anyone would know how to beat them it would be him. They did beat Barca, which is an achievement, but let's consider the circumstances. Inter stacks up very well against Barca, they are a defensively strong, physical team, and as well built as anyone (other than ManU) to beat them. Barca has to drive from Barcelona to Milan by bus because of the Icelandic volcano (by the second leg the ash had cleared), and they get beat pretty soundly (Inter had some help from the ref, too, if I remember correctly). On the next leg they park the bus and win it. In the final they got lucky and didn't have to play ManU. Instead they got to play Bayern, a much more offensive team. I bet if ManU were in the final Inter would have lost.
At the time Jose left, Inter had the oldest squad on the entire continent of Europe. There was one objective for the Mourinho project: win quickly and get out. There was no long-term investment in the squad, nothing done to bleed youngsters into the team. Inter will have to invest in their squad heavily in the future to replace many of the aging veterans. I knew they would suck this season, having the treble effect, and they had terrible luck with injuries under Benitez (and they weren't that deep of a team since winning the Champions League was considered much more important than having a well-built squad that would last), and their new manager has been proven to be unable to cut it at the highest level but has still got them playing OK in Serie A since he took over.
Mourinho moves to Real Madrid and I thought they'd win the league this year for sure. The galacticos had now had a full year to gel and some great new players were added. Ozil and Di Maria brought new dimensions to the attack, and an imposing CB (Carvalho), which was exactly what was needed, was brought in. Real Madrid this season is probably the most talented quad in the world. This is where Mourinho is at his best: dealing with high pressure situations and coaching squads full of big names. Not only does Real Madrid fail to seriously mount a title challenge, they are humiliated 5-0 by Barca, and they already cannot reach the point total they did last season. And I can't help but notice that a lot of this was due to Mourinho's ego.
There were two things seriously lacking with Real Madrid's squad this season. One was a replacement for Xabi Alonso when he wasn't there. This team is so much worse without him that it's not even funny. This was very apparent in RM's loss to Osasuna that I watched a couple months ago. Alonso was out with a virus (he was subbed on late in the game but lacked the energy to do much), and the team was completely unable to move the ball forward from the defense to the attackers. They were far up top as usual, completely isolated from the defenders and without the link that Xabi Alonso is. They couldn't do a good job of maintaining possession or moving the ball. Uncoincidentally, Xabi Alonso was missing in their recent loss to Sporting Gijon.
They also have been lacking a striker. They only had two pure strikers until Adebayor came, Benzema and Higuain. Higuain is obviously an amazing player, and I thought Mourinho could help mold Benzema into a great player as well since he obviously has talent. With Higuain out, that only left them with Benzema for the first part of the season. He clearly lacked confidence and was struggling with the pressure, and Mourinho's comments definitely didn't help. Rather than simply move Ronaldo up top and put one of his many wingers in his place (maybe Granero or Canales, who are rotting on the bench under Mourinho, even though the former did very well for R. Madrid last season), Mourinho whined until he got Adebayor.
In other words, Mourinho needed a deep-lying playmaker and a goal-scoring striker this season, and the latter should have been especially obvious considering that R. Madrid only had two pure strikers, one of whom had a poor season last year. The former also should have been obvious since RM has a bunch of good defensive midfielders and one good passing central midfielder. When Higuain couldn't play for months, this put Madrid in a very rough position. And luckily for RM, Xabi Alonso has played almost every game, but the few times he's been absent, they have been considerably worse and have dropped points (two of their three losses this season come to mind). And who did Mourinho decide to get rid of at the beginning of the year? Guti and Raul, a deep-lying playmaker and a goal-scoring striker. Some will say they were past their prime, and many on the internet thought this was a good idea. But as someone who watched Real Madrid play a lot last season, I will tell you that they were still extremely useful.
Raul salvaged points for them constantly last season with crucial goals, and he was a huge part of that title challenge. This season he is a big part of Schalke's amazing run in the Champions League. Though Guti hasn't played much this season since he's been hurt, he is still a great player. He was never a very pacey player, so it's not like he has lost all that much with age, and he was a consistent performer and crucial to Real Madrid's success last season. As a deep-lying playmaker who linked their defense and attackers (which was an issue last season when he or Alonso wasn't in the lineup) and is very creative (better at moving forward than Alonso), he was the perfect backup to XA. Of course he can't go 90 minutes week in and week out, but that wouldn't be necessary. They just needed him for when Xabi Alonso couldn't play, and he would have played that role very effectively, just like he did last season. Not only were these players tactically vital, they had both been at the club for decades and were very important leaders. Raul's work rate is as good as anyone's and he inspires the other players at the club to try harder. They undeniably would still be extremely important assets to this team if they were there this year.
Yet Mourinho's ego got rid of two players who could have swung the title balance in Real Madrid's favor this season. He did it because he wanted Real Madrid to be 'his team.' Guti and Raul are well established veterans who have seen coaches come and go, and rather than deal with their possible dissent if he made mistakes, he just got rid of them. That's what cost them the title and why they won't finish with as many points as last season. Not only is Mourinho's ego extremely annoying, it costs him success.
Not only that, Mourinho's teams always play the ugliest brand of football that exists, and the same is true for his Real Madrid team. Even though they are the biggest collection of superstars in the world, even though this team of galacticos was created for the purpose of winning with entertaining football (the platform on which Perez and Valdano were elected), Mourinho goes out in the next match against Barca and plays with incredibly negative tactics. It is true that they deserved their draw and that they were the better team, but they did this by sitting back in their own half most of the game, by maintaining only 20% possession, waiting for Barca to make a mistake and hitting them on the counter-attack. They did a **** good job and were the better team (although if you gave Barca that deserved Villa penalty, it may have been different), but in Valdano's words, it was "**** on a stick." The fans cheered because they didn't lose, but this certainly wasn't what they envisioned at the beginning of the Galacticos 2.0.
Real Madrid has an incredible amount of talent, especially their attacking players. If Pellgrini could go out and play offensively with a less-talented team that had just been put together and at least make the games interesting, why can't Mourinho coach his team to at least aspire to play like the first set of galacticos did? When he tried to it was 5-0. I think Mourinho only knows one style of play. He can have success with great teams when he plays defend-and-counter Mourinho ball, but ask him to play entertaining, offensive football and he can't do it.
Don't get me wrong, I think Mourinho is a great manager, but he's not among the best yet. He's only been in places where his success was more or less expected, he's only coached teams that were the most talented in their leagues. I think he's great with (negative) tactics, and he's a great motivator who can get the most out of a team of superstars with egos. He'd be the best fit in the world for ManCity, and they should do whatever it takes to get him. But he has plenty of flaws. He doesn't use young players and is only good for the club he's with in the short term. I don't think he could stay in one place for such a long time and build long-term success. He requires a big budget and to be able to buy a lot of his own players. And he always plays ugly, negative football. He hasn't proven yet he can provide a club with consistent, long-term success, or play offensively when the fans want it. And could he do what other managers do?
Could he do what Holloway has done this season at Blackpool, and do it by playing fairly offensive and attractive football? I know it's looking like they'll get relegated, but that was the expectation, and they've had some great performances this season.
Could he do what Sir Alex Ferguson has done? Could he have won the SPL with Aberdeen? Could he stay at one club for more than two decades and consistently bring them that many trophies? Could he plan for a club in the long-term like that? Could he constantly find new great youngsters and bring them through the system until they became great players? Could he win even when the team isn't the most talented in the league (I'm not saying ManU this season isn't the most talented team in the league, but I don't think they're exactly stacked with it this season, and look at how great they've been: I give the credit to SAF)?
Could he do what Wenger has done? I know most of you hate him and don't think he's a good manager, but his achievements at Arsenal are undeniable. Could Mourinho have built a club like Arsenal the way Wenger has? Taken them from a mediocre team to the best in the Prem? Could he have gone a whole season in the Prem without losing? More importantly, could he have done all of this and then sell all of his best players and start building the team in the long-run? Could he have made a profit on transfers for 8 consecutive years (2002-2009) and still kept his team competing in all competitions without ever falling out of the big 4? Could he have made a very large average annual profit (4.4 million pounds) for seven consective years (02-08) and done all of this? Under these fiscal circumstances, could he have had that much consistent success and played the most attractive football in the Prem? He hasn't shown me anything yet to prove that he would be able to.
Maybe Mourinho will prove in the future to be the best manager of all time, I'm not denying that possibility, I just think that people that think he's already there are giving him way too much credit.
Let's look at his record. True, he won at Porto and Benfica. But the Portuguese league is probably the most unbalanced league in the world other than the SPL. In the past decade, those are the only two teams with a shot at winning the title. He did win the Champions League in '04. This was his best achievement and a truly remarkable one. However, that was a very strange year in the Champions League (I mean, Monaco made the final) and he did have a lot of luck. Their group was an easy one if I remember correctly and he got lucky against an out-of-form, injured ManU in the knockout rounds, and he didn't have to face the Invincibles. He also had the easiest final opponent the in history of the competition. And let's not also forget that Porto is an extremely well-run club with good players who has played well in the Champions League since he left. It's not as if Mourinho was on the pitch.
Other than that his record has been good but taking into context where he has been, it's not super special. He came into a Chelsea team that was on the brink of being great. He had unlimited funds and basically created a fantasy football team. ManU and Arsenal were both in transition and he took a couple Prem titles. He couldn't take Chelsea to a Champions League final, getting knocked out in the first round once I believe and the other two times he was outwitted by Rafa Benitez. Then he lost a couple players, Chelsea was ****, and he left. Of all people, Avram Grant took over mid-season and he led Chelsea to the best record in the league for the time period of his tenure and took them farther in the Champions League than Mourinho ever did. Would have won it, too, if it wasn't for some incredibly bad luck. Years later the same, aging squad still wins Chelsea trophies. During these years, I don't think it took a genius to manage Chelsea to success.
Then he moves to Inter, and in his first season received more than plenty of criticism. Inter during those two seasons was by far the best team in Italy and had a world class squad (especially the second season), their only problem was that under Mancini they couldn't get it done in the Champions League. They had virtually no competition in Italy, as AC Milan struggled heavily during both of those seasons, and Juve is still recovering from calciopoli. Roma isn't exactly loaded with talent either. In his first season, he was constantly criticized because Inter wasn't anything special domestically and played exactly like they did under Mancini. Mourinho spent big on Quaresma, whom couldn't make any use out of. In the Champions League they were disappointing, getting knocked out in the first round and never really looking like they had a chance to advance. They won Serie A by default and couldn't win the cup.
Then Inter got very lucky with what was available in the transfer market. Real Madrid got rid of 3 great Dutchmen, and Inter was able to get Sneijder for relatively cheap. We all know how great of a player he is. Then, Eto'o and Barca had a disagreement over contracts so they had to get rid of him. They were able to swap Ibrahimovic, a very talented player who chokes in big games, for Eto'o, a proven winner. On top of that they got Diego Milito, a great finisher. Inter's squad last season was absolutely loaded with talent: definitely in the top 3 most talented teams in the world, and I think they were even more talented than the next most talented team, Barca, who had the treble hangover effect.
Inter goes out that season and plays like **** in Serie A. I watched them play many times, as I had Fox Soccer Channel, and was amazed at how consistently poor they were. Week in and week out they would play like **** and barely scrape out victories over lower-tier teams. They finally won the league on the last day, nothing special since they were so much more talented than the other teams in the league.
In the Champions League, they built Chelsea, who is a very good team but it's Mourinho's former team, and if anyone would know how to beat them it would be him. They did beat Barca, which is an achievement, but let's consider the circumstances. Inter stacks up very well against Barca, they are a defensively strong, physical team, and as well built as anyone (other than ManU) to beat them. Barca has to drive from Barcelona to Milan by bus because of the Icelandic volcano (by the second leg the ash had cleared), and they get beat pretty soundly (Inter had some help from the ref, too, if I remember correctly). On the next leg they park the bus and win it. In the final they got lucky and didn't have to play ManU. Instead they got to play Bayern, a much more offensive team. I bet if ManU were in the final Inter would have lost.
At the time Jose left, Inter had the oldest squad on the entire continent of Europe. There was one objective for the Mourinho project: win quickly and get out. There was no long-term investment in the squad, nothing done to bleed youngsters into the team. Inter will have to invest in their squad heavily in the future to replace many of the aging veterans. I knew they would suck this season, having the treble effect, and they had terrible luck with injuries under Benitez (and they weren't that deep of a team since winning the Champions League was considered much more important than having a well-built squad that would last), and their new manager has been proven to be unable to cut it at the highest level but has still got them playing OK in Serie A since he took over.
Mourinho moves to Real Madrid and I thought they'd win the league this year for sure. The galacticos had now had a full year to gel and some great new players were added. Ozil and Di Maria brought new dimensions to the attack, and an imposing CB (Carvalho), which was exactly what was needed, was brought in. Real Madrid this season is probably the most talented quad in the world. This is where Mourinho is at his best: dealing with high pressure situations and coaching squads full of big names. Not only does Real Madrid fail to seriously mount a title challenge, they are humiliated 5-0 by Barca, and they already cannot reach the point total they did last season. And I can't help but notice that a lot of this was due to Mourinho's ego.
There were two things seriously lacking with Real Madrid's squad this season. One was a replacement for Xabi Alonso when he wasn't there. This team is so much worse without him that it's not even funny. This was very apparent in RM's loss to Osasuna that I watched a couple months ago. Alonso was out with a virus (he was subbed on late in the game but lacked the energy to do much), and the team was completely unable to move the ball forward from the defense to the attackers. They were far up top as usual, completely isolated from the defenders and without the link that Xabi Alonso is. They couldn't do a good job of maintaining possession or moving the ball. Uncoincidentally, Xabi Alonso was missing in their recent loss to Sporting Gijon.
They also have been lacking a striker. They only had two pure strikers until Adebayor came, Benzema and Higuain. Higuain is obviously an amazing player, and I thought Mourinho could help mold Benzema into a great player as well since he obviously has talent. With Higuain out, that only left them with Benzema for the first part of the season. He clearly lacked confidence and was struggling with the pressure, and Mourinho's comments definitely didn't help. Rather than simply move Ronaldo up top and put one of his many wingers in his place (maybe Granero or Canales, who are rotting on the bench under Mourinho, even though the former did very well for R. Madrid last season), Mourinho whined until he got Adebayor.
In other words, Mourinho needed a deep-lying playmaker and a goal-scoring striker this season, and the latter should have been especially obvious considering that R. Madrid only had two pure strikers, one of whom had a poor season last year. The former also should have been obvious since RM has a bunch of good defensive midfielders and one good passing central midfielder. When Higuain couldn't play for months, this put Madrid in a very rough position. And luckily for RM, Xabi Alonso has played almost every game, but the few times he's been absent, they have been considerably worse and have dropped points (two of their three losses this season come to mind). And who did Mourinho decide to get rid of at the beginning of the year? Guti and Raul, a deep-lying playmaker and a goal-scoring striker. Some will say they were past their prime, and many on the internet thought this was a good idea. But as someone who watched Real Madrid play a lot last season, I will tell you that they were still extremely useful.
Raul salvaged points for them constantly last season with crucial goals, and he was a huge part of that title challenge. This season he is a big part of Schalke's amazing run in the Champions League. Though Guti hasn't played much this season since he's been hurt, he is still a great player. He was never a very pacey player, so it's not like he has lost all that much with age, and he was a consistent performer and crucial to Real Madrid's success last season. As a deep-lying playmaker who linked their defense and attackers (which was an issue last season when he or Alonso wasn't in the lineup) and is very creative (better at moving forward than Alonso), he was the perfect backup to XA. Of course he can't go 90 minutes week in and week out, but that wouldn't be necessary. They just needed him for when Xabi Alonso couldn't play, and he would have played that role very effectively, just like he did last season. Not only were these players tactically vital, they had both been at the club for decades and were very important leaders. Raul's work rate is as good as anyone's and he inspires the other players at the club to try harder. They undeniably would still be extremely important assets to this team if they were there this year.
Yet Mourinho's ego got rid of two players who could have swung the title balance in Real Madrid's favor this season. He did it because he wanted Real Madrid to be 'his team.' Guti and Raul are well established veterans who have seen coaches come and go, and rather than deal with their possible dissent if he made mistakes, he just got rid of them. That's what cost them the title and why they won't finish with as many points as last season. Not only is Mourinho's ego extremely annoying, it costs him success.
Not only that, Mourinho's teams always play the ugliest brand of football that exists, and the same is true for his Real Madrid team. Even though they are the biggest collection of superstars in the world, even though this team of galacticos was created for the purpose of winning with entertaining football (the platform on which Perez and Valdano were elected), Mourinho goes out in the next match against Barca and plays with incredibly negative tactics. It is true that they deserved their draw and that they were the better team, but they did this by sitting back in their own half most of the game, by maintaining only 20% possession, waiting for Barca to make a mistake and hitting them on the counter-attack. They did a **** good job and were the better team (although if you gave Barca that deserved Villa penalty, it may have been different), but in Valdano's words, it was "**** on a stick." The fans cheered because they didn't lose, but this certainly wasn't what they envisioned at the beginning of the Galacticos 2.0.
Real Madrid has an incredible amount of talent, especially their attacking players. If Pellgrini could go out and play offensively with a less-talented team that had just been put together and at least make the games interesting, why can't Mourinho coach his team to at least aspire to play like the first set of galacticos did? When he tried to it was 5-0. I think Mourinho only knows one style of play. He can have success with great teams when he plays defend-and-counter Mourinho ball, but ask him to play entertaining, offensive football and he can't do it.
Don't get me wrong, I think Mourinho is a great manager, but he's not among the best yet. He's only been in places where his success was more or less expected, he's only coached teams that were the most talented in their leagues. I think he's great with (negative) tactics, and he's a great motivator who can get the most out of a team of superstars with egos. He'd be the best fit in the world for ManCity, and they should do whatever it takes to get him. But he has plenty of flaws. He doesn't use young players and is only good for the club he's with in the short term. I don't think he could stay in one place for such a long time and build long-term success. He requires a big budget and to be able to buy a lot of his own players. And he always plays ugly, negative football. He hasn't proven yet he can provide a club with consistent, long-term success, or play offensively when the fans want it. And could he do what other managers do?
Could he do what Holloway has done this season at Blackpool, and do it by playing fairly offensive and attractive football? I know it's looking like they'll get relegated, but that was the expectation, and they've had some great performances this season.
Could he do what Sir Alex Ferguson has done? Could he have won the SPL with Aberdeen? Could he stay at one club for more than two decades and consistently bring them that many trophies? Could he plan for a club in the long-term like that? Could he constantly find new great youngsters and bring them through the system until they became great players? Could he win even when the team isn't the most talented in the league (I'm not saying ManU this season isn't the most talented team in the league, but I don't think they're exactly stacked with it this season, and look at how great they've been: I give the credit to SAF)?
Could he do what Wenger has done? I know most of you hate him and don't think he's a good manager, but his achievements at Arsenal are undeniable. Could Mourinho have built a club like Arsenal the way Wenger has? Taken them from a mediocre team to the best in the Prem? Could he have gone a whole season in the Prem without losing? More importantly, could he have done all of this and then sell all of his best players and start building the team in the long-run? Could he have made a profit on transfers for 8 consecutive years (2002-2009) and still kept his team competing in all competitions without ever falling out of the big 4? Could he have made a very large average annual profit (4.4 million pounds) for seven consective years (02-08) and done all of this? Under these fiscal circumstances, could he have had that much consistent success and played the most attractive football in the Prem? He hasn't shown me anything yet to prove that he would be able to.
Maybe Mourinho will prove in the future to be the best manager of all time, I'm not denying that possibility, I just think that people that think he's already there are giving him way too much credit.
as I think that you either want to start some banter or generally are not that clued up