HE IS NOT THE SPECIAL ONE HE IS THE SPENDING ONE Jose Mourinho is considered by many to be one of the best bosses of our generation, and calling his managerial magic a lie is a bold claim. But the facts are there to back it up somewhat;- - Mourinho has never really had success without spending huge amounts of money in order to accomplish it. -The clubs he’s been at are all clubs expected to win the leagues, winning them is no real shock. - The signings made by Mourinho have always been an extraordinarily high outlay. Let’s start by looking at Benfica, Mourinho took his first steps into management with 9 games at Benfica, he got 5 wins from 9, but lost twice, and left after a dispute with the high ups at the club - and it wouldnt be the last time. He then ended up at Uniao Leiria where he took charge for the last 7 games of their season, securing their highest spot ever of 5th, a position that they already occupied prior to his arrival so he cant really take the credit for that despite various sources claiming it was all his work. In his second season he kept the team solidly in 3rd where he attracted the attention of Porto. Up to this point in his career Mourinho had show promise, that cannot be denied, but from this moment onwards his career would spiral and spending for success would be the norm. He joined Porto who were in fifth spot and he promised that they would win the league. In his first full season in charge Mourinho spent approximately £10 million despite having a strong squad anyway. This would become his calling card, taking top squads and spending large sums of money on them, in his second season he spent nearly £10 million again and this time won the Champions League, and that’s when Mourinho started one of his seconds traits. Mourinho will take a club to its highest high and leave, knowing he cannot again take them to those heights, and if he fails during a season he gives up and leaves. Following his Champions League win with Porto he left for Chelsea and became one of the highest paid football managers of all time with a Salary of £4.2 million, this is where the nickname the Special One originated, during an interview with him saying: Please dont call me arrogant, but Im European champion and I think Im a special one. Mourinho started his career at Chelsea by spending £140 million on 10 players; players if anything they didn’t desperately need at an average of £14 Million per player. Mourinho managed to do the double and in doing so setting a series of Premier League records as they did. In his second season he spent £80 million, that’s £80 million on the reigning champions, the reigning champions who lost none of their first team players, again they won the league. Was Mourinho the Special One he declared himself to be? His third year Mourinho spent another £80 million but this year missed out on the trophy and that was it. After spending nearly £300 million on players in total the league couldn’t be won, and Mourinho packed his bags in late September to take over Inter Milan. He realised he couldn’t win the league and was out of the Bridge like a shot once the Internazionale job came up. In his first season he spent £50 million to try and strengthen the squad and despite winning the league fell short of the expectations that came with it, so Mourinho spent £83 million on a squad that again really needed no improvement. Mourinho won the Champions League with Inter thus fulfilling the duty he was brought in for, much to everyone’s delight, not much mention of the £120 million though; so what next for the special one? One of the richest clubs in the world of course. Real Madrid came knocking and thus started one of the biggest rivalries in recent generations. The summer of 2010 Mourinho took the reins at Real Madrid, one of the richest teams in the world, a team that a year previously had spent £225 million on getting some of the best players in the world. Yet Jose still felt necessary to spend £82 million - much the same in 2011 when Mourinho spent £43 million and just managed to pip Barcelona to the La Liga Title. Finally after two years and £125 million, again he’d done what he was brought in to do. But again no-one seemed to care about the millions he had spent doing so. The ‘Special One ‘ had now spent nearly half a billion to achieve what he had, yet was still heralded as a great manager. Mourinho spent one final season at Real and having only spent £29 million seemed to be destined for England once more, and that he was it for his La Liga Career. Mourinho’s dream of managing Manchester United didn’t come off though and he ended up back at the Bridge. And here we are, less than 48 hours after Mourinho has completed the signing of Nemanja Matic, A player sold for under £4 million bought back at £22 Million, bringing the total spending of Chelsea this window to £88.5 million and pushing Mourinho’s total spending as a manager to £562.5 million. This article isn’t to question Mourinho’s abilities as a man manager, something he is surely very good at, but it’s to raise the question, How come no-one has questioned him for spending so much? Of course to maintain the stature of some of the biggest clubs in the world money has to be spent, but since taking over at Arsenal in 1996 Arsene Wenger has spent only £430,850,000 but through diligent spending and purchasing only actually lost £13,800,000 in that time – whilst also winning the Premier League 3 times and the FA Cup 4 times. The man is clearly not a bad football manager but when we talk to the best players we always level them with one question, ‘Could they do it on a cold wet night in stoke?’ Let’s level Mourinho with a similar question - ‘Could he do it in the small, skint lower leagues? ‘
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 09:40:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015