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If José Mourinho had some sort of license on the use of his name, then after recent blanket speculation about him potentially taking over at Real Madrid the 63-year-old would have earned enough to compete with all the payoffs he’s had from the various sackings since he left Los Blancos back in 2013.
So ubiquitous has the debate over Mourinho to Madrid across TV, radio, newspapers, online, in bars and, no doubt, in the Madrid board room, that it has dwarfed even the approaching third and potentially LaLiga title-deciding Clásico of the season, which will be staged at Camp Nou this Sunday (LIVE at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+ in the U.S.).
Above anything else, it was Mourinho’s relationship with El Clásico (whenever eternal rivals Barcelona and Madrid meet to compete) which elevated him from fame and popularity to mythical status.
The 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s mega-team soon after than the “Special One” took over prime Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Marcelo; his ability to set that humiliation aside and win a classic Clásico in the 2011 Copa del Rey final by defeating Barcelona 1-0; his players’ stream of red cards, the controversial assertion that refereeing behavior towards Barcelona left him asking “Por qué, por qué!?” (“Why, why?!”) and the media guerrilla-warfare he waged on Guardiola.
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Whether Mourinho gets to watch this Clásico live is up for grabs — at the time of writing his Benfica side’s match against Braga this weekend has neither its date nor kick-off time validated.
Other things are much clearer.
Firstly, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez and Mourinho have maintained friendship, respect and a feeling of “unfinished business” since parting ways with the Portuguese coach 13 years ago.
Secondly, the job at Madrid is almost indescribably different, and more threatening, than when Mourinho left Inter Milan as Treble-winners and took over at the Bernabéu in 2010.
Thirdly, Mourinho left an unequal amount of disciples and “haters” behind when he went off to Chelsea having won one LaLiga title, two Copas and the Supercopa. Definitely more “haters.”
Finally, both Mourinho (via his agent Jorge Mendes) and Pérez have actively encouraged his name to be “out there” in the media over the last few weeks. It hasn’t been, and still isn’t, a “breaking news” story that some agile reporter or “well-sourced” editor has scooped everyone on. It has been that old adage of taking the temperature — working out the general consensus among Madridistas.
Poor old Alvaro Arbeloa, Madrid’s interim coach, seems not only to be running out of options to keep his job but appears to be acting and talking with exactly this realization in mind. Especially on player power … or at least, player behavior and attitude.
His ultra-pungent words on Sunday night, after his team prevented Barcelona becoming champions, for the moment, spoke volumes.
Luis Garcia and Craig Burley preview the upcoming El Clásico with Barcelona on the brink of winning another LaLiga title.
Taking in the fact that Álvaro Carreras suddenly profiles as third-choice left back, and the fact that the injured Kylian Mbappé was pictured larking about in Italy with his girlfriend, Arbeloa reported: “I often tell my players that it hurts when we see that all the other teams run more than us, and not just when we don’t have the ball, but it’s also something we have to focus on even when we do have possession.
“We have to be a much more mobile team, make many more runs off the ball, which is uncomfortable, because to get one pass you have to make 10 runs.
“We need the commitment of all the players to press, to defend, to attack. I think that, nowadays, if you want to be a very complete team, a team that opponents find difficult to beat, talent alone isn’t enough.
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“I like to see when the players understand not only that commitment is important, but that they embody the values of Real Madrid. When we talk about what Real Madrid is and how it was built, I believe we didn’t create Real Madrid with players who take to the field in tuxedos, but with players who finish the game with their shirts covered in sweat, mud, effort, sacrifice, and perseverance. That, along with having the best talents, is how we’ve built Real Madrid’s history.”
Words which will echo for generations to come. Painful, condemnatory, risky words. They embody what all of us can see with the naked eye, they include “inside” knowledge that a coach garners by working with his stars — and they are words which can rebound because some, those who are the intended targets, will resent them being used in public.
One thing that Mourinho possesses, when he cares to use it consistently, is the charisma, the personality, the Machiavellian skills and the man-management arts which can not only convince but hypnotize those who work with him. On the face of it, his years since coaching Madrid have been full of explosive, corrosive, intemperate, ill-judged and self indulgent episodes. But might he have the capacity to harness that side of his character and consistently become precisely the combination of stick and carrot that this squad requires? No, in my opinion. But it’s not my decision to make.
In his favor? Eagerness to take the job, relationship with the embattled president, enormous personality, a perpetual ability to settle a team on a particular style of play and then hone that philosophy to a competitive high.
He’s also available. His Benfica contract was for this season and next. In the summer there’s a small window of opportunity where he, or the club, can break the deal — meaning that if Pérez finally opts for the Special One (or maybe Special Once) then he can be installed quickly.
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This is, as you know, a FIFA World Cup season meaning that Madrid’s already tired, over-worked footballers whose absolute No. 1 problem is not that they are anarchic over-pampered babies but that they’ve had a total of just over three weeks of preseason training in the last two summers!
Whoever’s running this outfit destined for a second season without a major trophy, they need a huge game-changing plan and they need it right now. Not in midsummer when other, potentially attractive coaches like Mauricio Pochettino and Didier Deschamps could be available.
I hand the microphone to Jorge Valdano on that subject. The Argentine 1986 World Cup winner, who led Madrid to the Spanish title three times (as a player in1986 and 1987, then as a coach in 1995) was director of football at the Bernabéu when Mourinho first moved there. In due course, Valdano described the Portuguese’s product as “s— on a stick” and was sacked.
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But he’s still one of football’s authentic thinkers and articulate evangelists. Valdano now argues: “This is a moment which needs stability. To choose a project, to support it and to accept the consequences. You don’t achieve great things with some fairy-magic — with the naive idea that ‘someone will arrive, wield a magic wand the team is transformed, and everything will be fine again.’
“Madrid’s intensity needs to go up and for that you need to convince players. Often that type of transformation in the daily life of a squad can cause reactive injuries because when you’re not accustomed to working at a super-high level you then pay the price.
“Players only see two things: a weak coach or a strong coach. And if they see a weak coach then they’ll gobble him up in two seconds flat. But strength is something that the club projects. It doesn’t depend on the personality of talent of the coach — it’s about the club making it crystal clear that they back him.”
While I doubt Mourinho’s ability not to cause destructive mayhem if he takes charge, there’s an alternative view — expressed by Nuno Luz of Portugal’s SIC TV on Spanish radio recently.
“Mourinho’s changed a lot. The years have gone by, he’s older, calmer,” he argued. “But he’s got something which seems more important to a big club — players respect him. He’s got so much personality. He’s not the war-like Mourinho who arrived at Madrid the first time.”
Not long after Mourinho left in 2013, Pérez went on TV to praise and defend him. If you didn’t follow the soap opera closely the first time around, here’s a little reminder of what the president felt about his coach: “I’ve always heard José say that he’s been at many clubs, that he holds them all dear, but that Real Madrid is on another level.
“But, in Spain, Mourinho has been crucified and subjected to all sorts of abuse. I’m ashamed to repeat what they’ve reported about him. Mou, who comes from another country, as does his family, hasn’t understood it. You can say many things to him, but not what he’s had to endure. He’s been respectful, he hasn’t bothered anyone, and if he’s ever made a mistake, he’s apologized.”
And so, dear reader, two questions remain: does that sound like a president who retains affection for a man who might, just might, be a solution to Madrid’s current problems? And, if you were in his exalted position, would you take a risk on José Mark II?
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