Mourinho reinvented Chelsea and the Premier League: astute analysis, unconventional formations, below-the-belt mind games, and a new tactical blueprint
Tag: mourinho
European football would never look the same again after a young José Mourinho took his talented Porto side to Champions League and domestic dominance
When Chelsea met Barcelona in 2005, both sides were gunning to become Europe’s top power. It led to two unforgettable legs of football on and off the pitch
He was once football’s most revered manager, a master in man-management, but for six years now, the downfall of José Mourinho has taken shape
Internazionale’s return to the Champions League this season after a long sojourn was always bound to produce a flood of memories for the club’s fans, but few venues will evoke stronger nostalgia…
Inheriting perhaps the most complete team on the planet, Rafa Benitez, haunted by the ghost of José Mourinho, got things all wrong at Inter
“I was nine or 10-years-old and my father was sacked on Christmas Day. He was a manager, the results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23. On…
Few managerial stints have been as engrossing as José Mourinho three years at Real Madrid, a period that displayed all the complexities of his psyche
“IN FOUR OR FIVE YEARS, probably nobody will remember that I was Chelsea manager, and it becomes absolutely normal, just because I left a couple of years ago.” It would be fair…
JOSÉ MOURINHO HASNT HAD THE BEST RELATIONSHIP with the fine city of Barcelona after his exploits against them while he was the manager of Inter and Real Madrid. A former employee and…
MY GIRLFRIEND IS OBSESSED WITH ALAN RICKMAN. So great is her infatuation with the late actor that she once loitered in the shadows long after Rickman had departed a Q&A session at…
PREENING, POINTING, POSTURING AND PARADING; the managerial theatre played out in top-flight football’s technical areas is more often than not fascinating. Dugouts used to be quite literal – a sunken structure almost…
It is the sign of a true footballing great when they are revered long after they have departed this world. Their legacy transcends barriers, overcomes criticism, and ultimately manifests itself in every…
Recently, I was at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and my mind couldn’t help but wander off to football. This moment came when I was inspecting Pablo Picasso’s Las Meninas collection. In…
You get the impression that José Mourinho has always quite fancied Manchester United. Even when he was being unpleasant towards them in his Chelsea heyday, he never hated them as much as he…
The art of diplomacy, it is said, is to recognise the beliefs, opinions and feelings of other people and to balance them accordingly with those of their opponents – breeding it itself an…
HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS in football management? If it’s just about emerging victorious, José Mourinho is up there with the best over the past decade. There’s no doubt that José Mourinho is…
THE SMELL OF SUCCESS TAKES A LONG TIME TO WASH AWAY. For a football club with a history as illustrious as Manchester United’s, the odour develops a particularly powerful resistance. It lingers in…