MOURINHO: The Guy Who Defined Coaching for Me...
Mourinho:
The Guy Who Defined Coaching for Me
I grew up five minutes’ walk away from
Frédéric-Kibassa-Maliba Stadium then Kenya Stadium in Lubumbashi (Democratic
Republic of Congo) where I watched Tout Puissant Mazembe working their way back
to continental glory. I became and still remain a very faithful Mazembe fan. If
you don’t know about Mazembe ask former Internacional now Chelsea player Oscar
or ask CNN
to give you a full lecture about Mazembe… After moving to Malawi I still
remained very strongly connected to Mazembe and followed the team from their
local games to continental games in the African Champions League. I was
becoming saddened by the reality that most of the fans in Africa and I hear
even in other continents started moving their allegiance to the European teams
seeing the fame and wealth that is available in European leagues.
It wasn’t until 2004 when I was in my final year at
high school and writing for our school’s newspaper, Campus Eye, that I felt
pressurized to start paying attention to soccer in Europe. I decided I would
step out of my African soccer allegiance and explore how the beautiful game was
flourishing in Europe. Unfortunately for me at that time all my fellow
colleagues had taken what I considered as hot topics in European football and
left me with only a boring topic to find something to write about; a Jose Mourinho
Joining Chelsea Football Club. It was late in September and Mourinho had been
Chelsea Manager for almost three months and having made an instant impact in
the English Premier League. And this is just how my ‘friendship’ with Mourinho
(and Chelsea) begun.
Jose Mourinho has reduced the disrespect that I used
to have towards football managers. I wonder if I was alone among those who used
not to give enough credit to managers. When Mourinho came to England he changed a
lot of things from Cobham Training Centre to the publishing houses not only in
England but all over the world. Mourinho has changed the status of the Chelsea
Football Club. The anti-Mourinhos will argue Jose didn’t really play a
significant role but rather it is Roman Abramovich’s mega spending that has
transformed the club, in part yes but to ignore Mourinho’s specialness will be
either as a result of arrogance or ignorance. I saw this ignorance or arrogance
from both Manchester fans as well as Arsenal fans; they criticized the
legitimacy of Mourinho’s ‘magics’ when Jose was at Stamford Bridge, but they
were the first to call for Mourinho to come to Etihad Stadium, Old Trafford,
Emirates Stadium at the time Jose was ready to leave Real Madrid. This is one
of the many things which emphasized to me the popularity of Mourinho…
Chelsea’s
successes have unfairly been associated only with Abramovich’s money, but if we
talk about Mourinho’s success with an FC Porto which at the time was simply one
of the teams in Europe that begun the Champions League journey with a 3-1 loss
to Real Madrid, only to end up winning the prestigious title in the game. From
Chelsea he went on to win the Champions League with Inter Milan as ITV
Documentary rightly described it at a time when the Serie A was at its
lowest. At the time Barcelona was still in my opinion the best team in the
competition but I was very scared when Chelsea was
drawn against Mourinho’s Inter Milan. I thought it would be a bit easier if we
were to face Barcelona, the best team in the world, than facing an Inter Milan
led by the best manager in the world. For once I begun to give football
managers the respect they deserve. I was right, Mourinho beat us home and away.
We weren’t the only ones, Barcelona was also among Jose’s victims that season as the Portuguese led
the Serie A side to a treble.
Talking bout removing the cash out of Mourinho’s
success and giving the man credit he deserves, I remember one Champions league
game where Chelsea had lost two of their first team goalkeepers in the
premiership three days before meeting Barcelona. I was broke and had an
exam the following day and maybe in part I was just afraid to face our first
home defeat in Mourinho’s reign so I thought I had enough reasons to not stay
up late at 10pm as my bedtime was usually 8-9 let alone the exams in the
morning and also not to spend any money going to the cinema (where we watch
games in Malawi if you don’t want to go to a bar). My Arsenal fan friend
accompanied by his Man U compatriots forced their way in my room to wake me up
and had money in their hands to say I had no reason to miss the game. “You
can’t abandon your team at this critical time” they sarcastically counselled. I
was very irritated at being woken up as I had already caught my sleep and I
didn’t want to fight it but borrowing a little Mourinho-arrogance I decided I’d
get out of bed and prove them wrong. “How will I prove them wrong?” I didn’t
know how, but I guess Mourinho knew how. Barcelona was coming into town to face
a Chelsea that was playing with their third goalkeeper Henrique Hilario who in
fact was making his Chelsea debut as both Cech and Cudicini were sidelined with
injuries. Chelsea
didn’t only lose but beat and booted Barcelona out of Champions league with
a third-choice goalkeeper. This is just among many of Mourinho’s master-class
tactics which made Stamford Bridge that only Chelsea used to cross over the
other side and the rest of the teams no matter what they were called they came
to the Bridge to be drown.
Winning the Champions League was definitely the only thing
that remained an illusion for Mourinho’s Chelsea. But one thing I wonder if I
am the only who noticed since Mourinho’s arrival in England almost every team
that won the Champions league from then on had to beat Chelsea first before
lifting the prestigious trophy.
· 2004/2005: Chelsea lost to Liverpool with that only ‘goal’ in the Semi-Finals, Liverpool went on to make their historic 0-3 come-back and win in Istanbul versus Milan
· Lost 3-2 against eventual winners Barcelona in 2005-2006 Round of 16.
· Lost in penalty shoot outs versus our fierce Champions League rivals Liverpool in 2006-2007 Semi-finals, unfortunately for Liverpool Milan couldn’t allow a repeat of Instabul story Liverpool lost the finals to Milan.
· Mourinho left earlier in the season, but it was too early for his regime to forget his notes so the boys went to the finals and lost in penalty shoot-outs to Man U. I am sorry Avram Grant, I was left with nothing to give to Grant but the players were using Mourinho’s notes to walk their way to the finals of 2007-2008
· Come 2008-2009, Chelsea were eliminated in the semi-finals by Barcelona after they stopped the then invincible Barca from scoring in Nou Camp. Barca came to Stamford Bridge losing 1-0 until they scored a 93rd minute away goal that took them to the finals. This was after the referee of the day decided Barca weren’t to concede any penalties after FOUR credible calls (let this YouTube Video explain that), Barca went on to win the finals … Enough has been said about the pain and the injustice
· 2009-2010, we have already discussed this Chelsea was eliminated in round of 16 by eventual Champions league winners Inter Milan led by a certain Jose Mourinho…
· 2010-2011, Chelsea lost the quarter finals to Manchester United who were defeated by Barcelona in the finals.
· 2011-2012, Chelsea will finally win the Champions League, but the manner in which Di Matteo would lead the team pundits argued he mimicked many of Mourinho’s tactics.
· 2012-2013, the only season to forget as Chelsea got out in the group stage for the first time in the last decade. But the good news was this was the last straw that would make Mr Abramovich to swallow his pride and realise that his billions weren’t enough to save Chelsea, but rather the need of a Special Someone to return home to pick up from where he stopped. For me this wasn’t the season to forget, but rather great season that will definitely lead to my man to return.
All this to say, maybe it was wrong for Mourinho to call
himself a “Special One” we could have ended up giving him that title anyways.
He has quite a mouth of his own, but it is this same mouth that communicates to
players to defeat the odds. Hate him when he responds to questions about your
team, but you cannot take trophies and records out of his cabinet. He created a
winning spirit to a Chelsea team that spent fifty-five years waiting to win the
premiership. From the Champions League stats above it appears that a manager
had to tell their players “for us to win the champions league we have got to
beat Mourinho’s Chelsea first” and as in Inter Milan’s case or “we’ve got to
let Mourinho beat his own team first”
Will Mourinho win this year’s premiership ahead of rich Man
City or once-upon-a-time Title contenders Arsenal? I don’t know, but one
thing I am sure of Mourinho is back to come stabilise Chelsea once again and
make Stamford Bridge a place teams will pray never to come to.
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