Tribute to Jose 2
José Mourinho represents the ultimate triumph of this: The Cult of the
Manager. He has done as much as is humanly possible to render the action on
the pitch irrelevant. With Chelsea, the story was always the manager.
Players, what do they matter? Like Alfred Hitchcock’s actors, they are
cattle.
Mourinho was football’s star. His entire career was a sweet revenge on the
gods that made him unable to play the game. But he was never interested in
football for itself; rather, it was football as a vector for power that
enthralled him. That was his strength and ultimately his downfall.
Because the truth of the matter is that, ultimately, football is a game about
spontaneity; about fragments of individual brilliance allied to a corporate
resolve. If you reduce football to a series of set-plays, you reduce the
capacity for surprise and, therefore, the potential for winning.
But Mourinho hated spontaneity. He sought control. He wanted people who only
ever crossed on the pedestrian crossing, not realising, or rather, not
understanding that a city without jaywalkers is a city without artists.
He didn’t want artists. He didn’t trust them. He liked ordinary talents
developed to extraordinary lengths: Terry, Lampard, Makelele, Drogba. These
were people he could control, these were players who would not get between
the manager and his public.
One club, one star. Le club, c’est moi. Football’s
traditional belief is that the team are an extension of the manager’s
nature. Why, you may ask, were Chelsea not flamboyant, feisty, cocky,
maverick, paradoxical, intermittently brilliant? Because Mourinho is
primarily interested in power. The maverick side of his nature is merely the
way he set about claiming power, for it is power, not perversity, that
defines him.
As a result, the team were in subjection to the manager. This wasn’t a team
who cut loose, ever; this wasn’t a team you watched for the sake of this
player or that player. You wouldn’t catch Mourinho signing Cristiano Ronaldo
or Cesc Fàbregas, talents that need a certain amount of slack in the rope.
Rather, Mourinho put his faith in method and control. Chelsea were effective
enough but never reached beyond the brilliantly ordinary. The truly
exceptional was always beyond their reach, perhaps beyond Mourinho’s
understanding.
How else to explain his failures with Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack?
To fail with one might be regarded as a misfortune; to fail with two looks
like a personality disorder. A manager who takes on two of the finest
players in Europe and gets scarcely anything from either – indeed, seems to
delight in their misfortunes – must ask questions not about the players but
about himself.
These two players were stars and, as such, they didn’t fit into Mourinho’s
plans. They were a threat to him. It was important for him that they failed,
and they did. This is heresy: it should be the belief of every coach that
anyone of sufficient talent can be accommodated.
Mourinho preferred other methods. They work, too. They worked for Mourinho at
FC Porto, where he won the European Cup, and they worked well enough in
England to bring two league titles, even if a second European Cup was always
beyond him with Chelsea.
But these methods have their drawbacks. The first is that if you rule the
exceptional out of your game, you are going to have problems when you
encounter the exceptional among your opponents. You have eliminated the
element of individual inspiration. In fact, the only place in which
individual inspiration was allowed to flourish with Chelsea was with the
goalkeeper. Petr Cech’s head injury was the single reason Chelsea failed to
win the league title last season.
The other drawback is that your team are going to be less fun. Less fun to
watch, less fun to play for. And you can argue all you like that a win is a
win and that it doesn’t matter whether you went the pretty way or the ugly
way, the fact is that Mourinho found himself in trouble at Chelsea because
of a disagreement on the subject of aesthetics. It is true, yet it is not
true, that Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, parted company with Mourinho
because he was unable and unwilling to deliver football like Barcelona. That
was the proximate cause, of course, an ever-growing dissatisfaction with the
fact that Chelsea’s highest ambition was to achieve a sustained and
brilliant mediocrity.
But the ultimate cause was different. If it hadn’t been aesthetics, it would
have been something else. Mourinho established a one-star club, with one man
attracting all the attention, making all the stories, setting the agenda,
one man as the centre of power, one man as the moving spirit, one man
eclipsing all others. It really should have occurred to him that a man who
had spent 500 million quid to establish the club as a publicity vehicle for
himself may get a little bit irritated by that.
Because the truth is that Mourinho’s power was only ever an illusion. He drew
attention to himself, he had the nation’s football press delighting in every
pose, every absurdity, every contradiction, but he was never truly in charge
of Chelsea. Such power as he had was loaned, not achieved or given.
Mourinho reminds me of the critic in Anthony Powell, whose goal “was to
establish finally that the Critic, not the Author, was paramount”. The cult
of the manager is designed to promote the idea that the manager, not the
player, is paramount and Mourinho’s is the ultimate expression of this cult.
And that’s why Mourinho had to go – because the cult is based on a false
premise. In the end, the players are the stars.
Jobs for the boy
Where will José Mourinho turn after leaving Chelsea? Bill Edgar examines some
of the possibilities, with William Hill supplying the odds on his next job.
Portugal Mourinho has often said that he would like to coach his
country’s national team, although he may prefer to seek further glory at
club level after departing from Chelsea ahead of schedule. Odds 1-2
Tottenham Hotspur A club with such a long history of underachievement
would surely welcome Mourinho with open arms, but would he be willing to
join a club where a director of football has a prominent role? Odds
6-1
Barcelona A move to the Nou Camp would be a surprise, even though
Mourinho worked there as Bobby Robson’s translator. The Portuguese is
disliked for his inflammatory comments before and after Chelsea’s Champions
League meetings with the Spanish club, notably in 2005, when he accused
Anders Frisk, the referee, of bias towards Barcelona because of an alleged
half-time discussion with Frank Rijkaard, their coach. Odds 8-1
Real Madrid A job at the Bernabéu also seems unlikely given that Real
recently did exactly what Chelsea have done – parted company with a
successful manager because his style was boring. Fabio Capello’s league
title last season could not save his job. Odds 10-1
England Mourinho has the ego and single-mindedness to take on “the
impossible job” and the post will probably become available this autumn if
England fail to reach the European Championship finals. Odds 10-1
FC Porto Having won every trophy on offer to the club, he would
probably decline the chance to coach there again, even if he would have the
freedom to operate as a dictator. Odds 12-1
Inter Milan Mourinho reportedly spoke to the Italian club this year,
but Roberto Mancini should be secure as coach after Inter’s runaway title
success last season. Odds 20-1
Arsenal Mourinho may be tempted to seek revenge on Chelsea by taking
over one of their main rivals, but the prospects of Arsène Wenger vacating
the manager’s chair seem slim. Odds 20-1
Wenger vacating
the manager’s chair seem slim. Odds 20-1
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Great piece of writing
Sly, London,
rather
harsh and distorted version of reality. Ferguson or Wenger are as much
control freaks and actuallly have more power in their respective clubs.
While taking all the attention on himself Mourinho has let the players
bask in relative calm. For this they are actually grateful to him.
Sheva and Ballack are also big egos and no managers want to deal
with that. Witness Ferguson on Beckham after he got married and
involved in pop, fashion etc. Managers want players that will die for
the cause not prima donnas and show offs.
Winners are often difficult, driven characters. Gullit for one,
was also criticised for his outspokeness, but if things are ever to
change someone has to speak up. Mourinho has shaken English football
into life. It is more competative and of a higher standard accross all
clubs than it was before him. He has broken the dominance of Man U. and
opened up the chances of other teams winning, and we should be thankful
for his willingness to call it like it is.
Dan , london, uk
Would love to have him at Man Utd…
Now that Carlos is leaving Man U, he should step in and take them to greater heights 
Praveen, Chennai,
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How about Man utd?
Fergie is on a rolling contract and now would seem an opportune time to hand over the reins.
Bill, town, country
