Jose Mourinho’s rapport with the media this season has not been good. From refusing to attend press conferences to bizarrely appearing on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday to have a go at anyone and everyone, it has been an eventful few months to say the least. Now, following Wednesday’s Champions League result, he has taken another swipe at the media saying that they “worry about me too much” and that few other managers compare to him. Well then, is Mourinho really in a position to say this?
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After studying Mourinho’s accomplishments it is hard to refute his success. The man from Lisbon has racked up nearly more trophies than I have fingers and toes in the fifteen years since his managerial debut in 2000. Seventeen major honours achieved in four different countries is certainly a mean feat. Amongst his medals are seven league titles alongside an equal number of domestic cups, one UEFA cup and two Champions League trophies. By looking at that you can understand where he’s coming from.
What’s more impressive is the spread of his achievements. He has won at least one league title in four different countries (only the fourth man to do so) and Europe’s premier prize with two different clubs. Furthermore, in the eight seasons that Mourinho was in a job following his first trophy with Porto, he never failed to win at least one major honour in each of them.
Standing beside him are the likes of Bob Paisley. Nine years in charge of the dominant Liverpool team of the 1970’s and 80’s saw him lift the league title six times and the European Cup three times, continuing where Bill Shankly left off. This makes him the winningest manager in the history of the torunament alongside Carlo Ancelotti who, like Mourinho, also won it with teams from two different countries. However, his inability to capture a league title no more than three times is undoubtedly a mark against him, despite each of his titles again coming in different European leagues.
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Ottmar Hitzfeld is another name that comes to mind. Widely regarded as the greatest manager in German football history, Hitzfeld racked up seven Bundesliga titles during his tenures at Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich as well as a European Cup at each.
Additionally he obtained five major honours in Switzerland. The likes of Ernst Happel and Brian Clough should not be forgotten either. The former won the league in four different countries and the European Cup at two different clubs while the latter took a Nottingham Forest team out of nowhere to the pinnacle of Europe twice as well.
Then there is Sir Alex Ferguson. With a tally of major honours that almost doubles the average age for a Premier League footballer, probably the greatest manager in the history of the game won 17 leagues, 14 domestic cups and 2 Champions Leagues (amongst others) between his time in Scotland and England. Perhaps his greatest failure is not winning the European Cup on more occasions but despite this, at least in this writer’s opinion, he has no rival.
Amongst his medals are seven league titles alongside an equal number of domestic cups, one UEFA cup and two Champions League trophies
So where does Mourinho stand in all this? He certainly believes that there is a “a huge difference, a huge distance” between him and other managers, and perhaps even between him and some of the names mentioned above. Mourinho’s record has sometimes been tarnished by the fact that there’s always been big money behind his success.
At Chelsea FC, Abramovich essentially gave him a blank cheque book. Meanwhile at giant clubs like Inter Milan and Real Madrid, the situation was little different. However, one must remember what he did at Porto. He took a club with relatively little resources and engineered them into a team that shocked everyone in that 2003/04 season.
Additionally, bar a season or two here and there, he has always fulfilled the expectations that come with big spending and delivered trophies. You only have to look at Manchester United’s current failings to understand that unlimited funds don’t necessarily always equal success. This too with a manager who is no stranger to winning either in Louis Van Gaal (7 leagues, 1 Champions League).
Aug 10, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Chelsea FC head coach Jose Mourinho. Mandatory Credit: Paul Frederiksen-USA TODAY Sports
We have already discussed the limitations of the CVs of managers like Ancelotti, but where Mourinho does have an edge over the majority of the aforementioned names is that he’s done it across Europe. He’s not always had the most stylish or crowd-pleasing system of football, but he has managed to take that and implement it with considerable success seemingly anywhere he has gone.
Achieving consistently at one club is by no means a small accomplishment, and the way Ferguson was able to stay at Man Utd for so long constantly rebuilding and reshaping a squad to stave off competition is an achievement we’re likely never to see again. Having said this, there is that little something special about being able to move around and adapt to different footballing cultures to bring immediate success that makes Jose unique.
Critics of Mourinho also point towards a supposedly underwhelming stint in Spain and a failure to bring Roman his vaunted European Cup as stains on his legacy. However, at Real Madrid he was up against arguably the only man who can match his success in recent times in Pep Guardiola.
Furthermore, his lack of a Champions League at Chelsea FC is indeed a failure of sorts, and certainly one he personally wants to rectify, but again it is a fact critics bring up in order to merely give them something to shout about. Similar to Ferguson, it is a failure, but only a minor one. Doesn’t the rest of his achievements compensate for this?
Mourinho is undeniably an arrogant man. Yet this time, it seems to hard to question what he is saying. His rate of success is astonishing and looks unlikely to slow down anytime soon with a league and cup double on the horizon. Love him or hate him there is little reason to question his reputation as one of the greatest managers we have seen in the game. To paraphrase the man himself, he is truly one of the special ones.