Many football supporters around the world think that Jose Mourinho is the best manager these days. Especially to those who’ve been supporting the Clubs that Jose managed. He’s been successful as he collected 7 League title in 4 different countries and also won 2 Champions League in his 13 years of his successful managerial career.
As it turns out, things work differently this year. After being trashed out by Borussia Dortmund in Champions League and only finished 2nd in La Liga, Mourinho and Real Madrid parted their journey before the season is over. So it’s quite interesting to assess how The Only One, with his fantastic achievement in his CV, failed miserably at Bernabeu in his 3rd season.
He’s the Mercurial One
This is not blaming game, in which I mean there’s no accusation on who’s wrong and who’s right. This is more to managerial style of Jose Mourinho. He doesn’t want any player thinks himself bigger than the other players, the club, and Jose Mourinho himself. So they have to “bow down” to the rules Jose implemented and there’s no special treatment. This is why Jose was successful during his tenure at Porto, Chelsea, and Inter because he was the star of the victory. He was the king. Yet Abramovich didn’t really agree with it.
Jose is the mercurial one. He has to do this in order to become the boss of everything so all the players will do his instructions. Sounds mad? but that’s what made him as successful as he is. However, in Madrid there’s a player who’s bigger than him: Iker Casillas. He’s bigger than everyone at Real (or Spain) at this moment. He’s the captain of World Cup winning team which is adored by, probably, most of people in Spain. He’s untouchable. And Jose didn’t like this of course.
We didn’t seem to realize this situation until Jose benched Casillas for Diego Lopez which burning speculation about internal conflict at Bernabeu. He also spoke to media that Diego Lopez is better than Iker Casillas. Worst, he stated that the first thing he should have done when he was appointed by Florentino Perez was: get rid Casillas, buy Lopez. That’s mad. Spanish people were very angry with this comment. But Jose is being Jose. Many people forget that he did the same to previous icon of Madrid: Raul Gonzalez. He let the Prince of Madrid, who was as admired as Casillas now, go to Schalke.
Motivational Limit
When he first arrived at Porto, Chelsea, and Inter, those clubs full of stars but they haven’t win the title under their previous managers respectively. So there’s habitual words said by Jose. Like, “you are the best (goalkeeper/defender/midfielder/striker) in the world” to certain players just to motivate them. Also word like “you’ve won nothing, but you can win everything if you want to” something like that. And it worked time to time.
In Real Madrid, things aren’t just the same. Jose can’t say those aforementioned words to Real Madrid players as they are bunch of Champions already, especially Iker Casillas and his Spanish compatriots who’ve won World Cup. I firmly believe if anyone says to Iker: “you’re the best goalkeeper in the world” it’s nothing sort of motivational words but Iker would only take that with pinch of salt. To some players who’ve won nothing like Oezil, Khedira, Diego Lopez, Varane, et. al., this might be working. But for the stars, it is not.
Lack of Appreciation
I’ve been told by my friends who’ve been studying in Spain that, everyone who works at Real Madrid, from the management, the players, to even the cleaning services, think they work for the best football club in the world. That’s probably true though. No matter how great a manager beat the unbeatable arch rival, Barcelona’s Guardiola which was dubbed as the best football club in history, it’s regarded as something usual for Madrid. Albeit Jose successfully won the league after impressive season record by reaching the highest points in Madrid history, still it’s not a spectacular thing in Real Madrid’s eye. It’s their tradition. Real standard is really high. In Real, winning a trophy is something that many coaches can do so Mourinho didn’t really get the credit he deserves.
Egos of Galacticos
As I previously pointed, this Real Madrid team consists of various stars. Historically, Real Madrid is known for always buying stars and breaking the bank. Not just this season as it’s Real’s tradition. If Casillas already won a World Cup and Cristiano won Ballon D’Or once, how about the others who’ve won nothing, like Oezil and Khedira? Doesn’t matter. They’re all stars too. Once a player have joined Real Madrid, he’s a star. There’s no such thing as mediocre in Bernabeu (at least they think so).
If I said that buying stars is Real’s tradition, the bad impact followed by buying stars is their tradition too. Even some decline and underperformed players still think themselves as stars. Act like stars. In fact, some of them are actually nothing but bunch of garbage (i.e. Pepe et. al.). Their arrogance is there, and it’s massive. Their egos have been Real first problem and it makes any coach feels difficult to handle them.
Jose Mourinho is well-known as a manager who has the biggest ego in football. He’s an outspoken person who, sometimes, saying things too frank that it leads him into many troubles. But that doesn’t stop him being outspoken because that morality is what drives him to success. And when he came to Bernabeu, I believe that one day this clash of egos will happen. And that’s it. We see this happening. The battle between stars is happening now. As a result, the team is underperforming in all competitions.
That’s what I think on Jose Mourinho early departure from Bernabeu. I love Jose Mourinho and I don’t like Real Madrid but those opinions are the objective truth. Real Madrid, with their extraordinary history, (think they) are bigger than Jose Mourinho. It’s the fact that Jose Mourinho afraid to admit. But doesn’t matter as this leads to his imminent return to Stamford Bridge, hopefully.
REAL WORLD Not REAL MADRID.
I think now days players have more ego’s then manager and board always prefer Player nt manager sadly.
Jose Ȋ̝̊̅ڪ. Forever †ђξ best manager,irregardless of what †ђξ world thinks or say about him.thanks Ƒσя µř post
jose is big. Thats is the truth that roman failed to accomodate during his reign at chelsea and now is paying heavily to bring jose back now. If any clubs want any coaches to be successful, they must give their coaches free hand to perform.
He should be allowed to operate and do his work his own way. Great manager.
mate, the thing you got wrong is that Mourinho thinks no body is better than the club, even himself or the president or owner of the club. He has said at chelsea in his 2nd season when he was about to win us the 2nd consecutive EPL in 2005/6. What he has done to Casillas, he has done it at Porto, which is to motivate the players to do more.
The problem with him at Real is that The players like Casillas and Ramos are untouchable and have higher power than the manager and most of the players. Thats the Real Madrid tradition. Raul and Guti were the same during their time. If you look at Barcelona, Puyol, Xavi and Messi aren’t treated that way. Barca are about to replace Puyol in their starting 11. Simple as that. The problem is the high expectations and the tradition of the club.
if he thinks so then he should stop saying stuffs like “special one”, “only one” like that. you might be right but that manner shows massive arrogance. if Mourinho really prioritize his team above everything, he should have said “team one” like AVB said during his first presser at Chelsea: which underlined team is above everything, not individual.
also, if he thinks the club is above everything, then he should stop saying bad PR words like “Diego Lopez is better than Casillas”, “Varane is better than Pepe” etc in front of the media. this is surely disrupting harmony in the dressing room. That’s why Florentino took imminent action by didn’t allow him to talk in pre-match and released statement about end of Mourinho contract before the season is over.
The mercurial one label is premature, considering this is really his 1st season without major silverware as a manager.
On Madrid, he was right about Casillas. Diego Lopez is quite similar to Petr Cech in consistnely high attributes,build, as well as intelligence. Casillas, on the other hand, has a swiss-cheese style with many strengths as well as weaknesses. Casillas is probably the best reflex saver in the game, but he’s terrible at penalties, mediocre at distribution, and this season had such a dip in form that he was ranked the 17th best keeper in La Liga. The fact that this fellow had an uncontested position at Madrid is precisely what makes Madrid a political squad rather than a meritocracy. On a technical level he deserved to be benched, and Lopez has truly performed better than Casillas would have based on season stats.
The reason Madrid failed to get the CL with Jose is the same reason Chelsea did too–they didn’t completely commit to his values. He wasn’t allowed to get a new rightback or striker, and during the season those absences were specifically exploited by teams in the CL.
The personal aspect on the Casillas dispute shouldn’t be ignored either. As a leader Casillas is inferior to JT and Zanetti. It takes a poor leader to openly admit to not getting along with CR7, the club’s most important player, as well as the manager. It takes a poor leader to say victory is impossible after going 2-0 to Barcelona at halftime only to end the game at 2-2. No good captain would be that negative or disunifying.
It takes a politician to leak information to the media and passive-aggressively encourage a press campaign against Mou. It also takes a coward to allow Vincente del Bosque come in defense of Casillas and turn the feud into a nativist one.
At Stamford bridge the worst that will happen to a manager is a sense of shame after a sacking which is consoled by the nice payout; at Madrid the worst that can happen is persistent severe defamation by the press which attacks the manager, his children, his background, his nationality, and tries to precipitate his sacking well before the club is considering it. Then there is the eventual sacking after the team tars his impeccable performance record, after they blame him publicly, after they fail to live up to any of the characteristics typical of a Mourinho team.
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