Jose Mourinho would be much more highly respected if he stopped telling everyone he should be respected. But he cannot get Chelsea off his mind.
Jose Mourinho is not the man he once was. Some say he has lost his spark, others his connection with a newer generation of players. Regardless of what it is, he is not the man who won the league in unprecedented fashion with Chelsea anymore.
Of course, he will do everything in the world to convince people he still is that man. The last thing Mourinho wants to admit is that the game is leaving him behind and he will point to the past to prove that it is not. At almost every turn, Mourinho references his victories at Chelsea instead of his victories at his current club.
Much has been said about respect towards and from Mourinho since the bust up at Stamford Bridge. But at the end of the day Chelsea has moved on and Mourinho is still thinking about the club.
It makes sense why this is happening now (not that it has not been happening since he joined Manchester United mind). The culture Mourinho put in place at Chelsea lasted all the way up until now. Even when the club tried to rebuild with Andres Villas-Boas, the Blues remained cut from Mourinho’s cloth.
Now things are different. Most players that remember a dominating Mourinho have gone elsewhere. Many from the second stint have also departed if not totally forgotten about it. And now Maurizio Sarri is doing something to the culture of the club that has not been seen since Mourinho.
The Portuguese manager is basically seeing his legacy evaporate on two sides. One is Sarri reshaping Chelsea in his image at the expense of Mourinho’s image. The other is Mourinho’s struggle to find any success at Manchester United no matter how much money he throws at a problem.
Mourinho likely knows that his time at United is approaching its end. Even his former tactical masterstrokes are few and far between. And what does he do when things go wrong now? He sticks three fingers in the air to show the Premier League titles he has won. With Chelsea.
Yes, Mourinho took the United job part out of desire and part out of revenge. But that has failed and now all Mourinho has are his past victories with Chelsea. They have no bearing on his current situation at United but he feels they should. He feels his time at Chelsea should earn him respect at United.
Some managers can be amazing for a brief period until the game figures them out. Mourinho might just be one of those managers. He stuck around the top for nearly a decade but the end of his second Chelsea stint symbolized a moment to adapt or be overcome. Mourinho hunkered in with his Premier League trophies earned at Chelsea and has not come out. Sarri’s appointment only made things worse, as will the Stamford Bridge fans chanting against him.
Mourinho only has the past to point to now and that is pulling away from him too. The end of Mourinho as a managerial threat is approaching. The man cannot let go of the past, which has only robbed from his future.