In defense of Mourinho, Why The ‘Special ONE’ was not a failure at Real Madrid

Jose Mourinho has reportedly signed a 4 year contract agreement with Chelsea on his two-day trip to London last weekend, according to The Sun. And Chelsea will unveil him next week after he finishes his Real Madrid season this weekend by playing Osasuna at Santiago Bernabue. But, the main talking point in Spain medias has been the fact that Jose Mourinho has put bad image on Spanish football during his time and was said to be a failure at Real Madrid. In this article, I will briefly explain my opinion as to why Jose Mourinho wasn’t at fault for failing to achieve what was planned and expected of him in his time at the Spanish capital.

When Mourinho started his first season in charge of Real Madrid, Sir Alex Ferguson said, “I’ve spoken to Jose a couple of times,and he’s not managing a normal football club. Sometimes he’s managing a circus, sometimes a fantastic outfit in terms of the quality of the football they can produce and the kind of players they always want. But it’s a very difficult club to manage.” Real Madrid is a club where expectations are so high and you really can’t pick a right kind of manager to last long, be successful and build a legacy at the club. There are many managers who have been successful in bringing trophies to the club, but all of them have left their post due to some unexplained circumstances. Even Jupp Heynckes, the current champions league winning manager with Bayern Munich lasted just one season in which he won the Champions League trophy for Real Madrid back in the day. “It’s a very demanding club. It is very hard to live for a long time with a club as complicated as Real Madrid. It is a machine so big, so powerful and so merciless that sometimes in its way it often ends up trampling an occasional life. It is very curious and hard to explain that Jupp Heynckes won a Champions League title after 32 years [without the club having won one] and still had to leave the club, but the club is like that,” said Manolo Sanchis, captain of that European Cup-winning team. Fabio Capello left with mutual consent after winning the league title in 2006/7 season. The Bernabue hot seat is difficult to handle due to the traditions and standards set at the club. There is too much player power in the dressing room and most of the time, the managers don’t get to chose which type of player they want to sign at the club. Out of no where, the club president prepares a spending spree for summer transfer window and signs multiple world-class footballers in record transfer money, a policy they call ‘Galacticos’. The role of the coach at the club, historically, has had little weight. Only Fabio Capello during his first tenure at the club in 1996-1997 accrued as much power as Mourinho had in the last 3 seasons.

At first, it seemed as Mourinho has defied the odds and has gotten the powers he wanted at the club as manager when by his suggestions, the two captains of the team, Raul and Guti were both offloaded in the summer he arrived. It seemed impossible for any manager to do so, but not Mourinho. President Florentino Perez trusted Mourinho into leading Real Madrid to ‘La Decima’ and top Barcelona as the dominant force in Spain. Also at the end of Mourinho’s first season, Perez sacked sporting director, Jorge Valdano, a man who was responsible for many managerial recruitments at the club, after Perez knew Mourinho didn’t want Valdano to get near the dressing room during matches and everything. But, Mourinho started acting in a way that the club’s tradition didn’t support. The Portuguese  manager poked Tito Vilanova in the eye after a super cup defeat of Real Madrid to Barcelona. He acted those kind of ways to fight against Barcelona in any means necessary but, captain Iker Casillas had other ideas when he phoned Barca captains Puyol and Xavi into making peace between the players that play for the two rival clubs. Mourinho was angered by Casillas’s action and he flipped and accused Casillas of traitorous behavior. During a Real Madrid squad meeting, Mourinho lectured his players, telling them they had to all pull in the same direction, while staring at Casillas. His captain was angered and they never spoke after that for as long as in a month. That seemed to be the controversy that started it all for the pairs’ problem at the club that lasts to this day.

‘My position is not because he was the coach of a rival. But because of who he is and what he did. His three years in Spain he only creates disagreements, arguments, there is nothing positive he brings.”
“You can learn good things about life from watching people in football, or the circus, or the opera. There was nothing he brought that was good. There was no positive balance. I cannot see anything good about him. Not one thing. In sporting terms, maybe I am not the person to ask. But in cultural terms, he was a disaster.”
“Apart from his aggression to the coach of Barca, the ambiance he creates everywhere he goes, the relations with the players, with the press are absolutely terrible. I am happy that he is leaving. And so is everyone in Spanish football.”
“A coach you would think wants to celebrate with his players, enjoy the moment. Not him. He is thinking of himself. I don’t know what is wrong with him. In his mind there is something wrong.”
“I am just glad he has gone. I am not interested in him. Go, leave, goodbye.”
– quote from Barcelona Vice-president Carles Vilarrubi when asked about Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho had already apologized for the eye poking of Tito Vilanova. But, former Real Madrid president Juan Calderon claimed that Mourinho didn’t follow the traditional rules of the club and that Perez was at fault for appointing Mourinho in first place while he clearly knew about Mourinho’s behavior in England and Italy. Also Jose Mourinho had so many disagreements and jibes with the Spanish media that even last season,went on to sue one of Marca magazine writers for putting wrong information about him in the papers. And when Real Madrid announced they would be partying ways with the Portuguese manager, most newspapers in Spain media claimed it would be a positive move for Spanish football that Jose Mourinho will be leaving.  All of this so called ‘weaknesses’ of Mourinho could have been excused at Madrid if he had retained The league this season and won Real’s 10th champions league trophy. But, he didn’t manage to do that as the club failed by reaching the semi-final of champions league(for the 3rd time in a row), final of the Copa Dela rey(Real Madrid losing embarrassingly to rivals Athletico Madrid for the 1st time since 1999) and finished 2nd in the league after Barcelona. He explained in a press-conference that his achievements where great at his tenure at the club but, due to high expectations put on him, he failed to achieve what was expected of him at the club. He described the 2012/13 season as “what could have been an incredible season for others is the worst of my career” after the Copa Dela Rey final defeat.

Meanwhile, Madrid president Florentino Perez has been slightly positive in his assessment of Mourinho’s time in Madrid.

He said: “I give it a B+, he has been a bit annoyed by the results. As time goes by we realise that the work of Mourinho has been very positive. People are what they are. He lives all with so much passion and so much demand that sometimes things happen.”

Many people think he is a failure at Madrid, but the team had immensely improved since Jose took over in 2010. Real Madrid had been kind of an overrated team with high profile names in the squad for much of the last decade(2003-2013) even though they had great players. That was because they didn’t exceed their expectations even though they continued to splash money every summer. Jose Mourinho won the first Copa Dela Rey for the club in 20 years. And as he has said it himself, 18 managers have given 5 semi-finals in the last 21 years and Mourinho got 3 in 3 years during his reign at Real Madrid. Real Madrid started to work as a team and had been very explosive team since he arrived at the club. All of this success was overshadowed by the high expectations set for him and because of the controversies in most of the things he does. So, i don’t think Mourinho was a failure at Real Madrid and if he was given time and the players stood by his side, he could have gotten them the ‘La Decima’ 10th trophy all Madridistas crave so much for.  He clearly knew the managerial job at Real Madrid was very demanding and so much unpredictable, but it is Jose Mourinho’s nature that allows him to overcome difficult challenges in football. The expectations of winning the Champions League would still very much exist for his 2nd coming to Stamford Bridge as manager on a 4 year contract. And I believe this time he will enjoy a good relationship with Owner Roman Abramovic has they have dealt with each other in the past and Mourinho would surely know what to do this time around to deliver trophies at Chelsea like he did the last time and most importantly nurture our promising youngsters into the first team. According to the Sun, he has decided to continue with the club’s policy of buying young players instead of high profile signings mostly. But, one or two huge signings will be made this summer transfer window, with either Edenson Cavani or Lewandowski to arrive for huge transfer money. I think Mourinho would surely want to give Lukaku a chance next season to turn him into the ‘NEW Drogba’. Those will remain to be seen soon enough as Mourinho is set to be unveiled in a press-conference  next week.

How do you analyse Mourinho’s time in charge of Real Madrid during his 3 seasons at the club and how about the claims that he has been a negative influence in Spanish football by many critics? feel free to comment & thanks for reading! ktbffh!!!