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Where
do you start when talking about “The Special One”? Do
you start with a list of the trophies he’s won - a lengthy
one. A list of the players he’s bought - slightly longer. Or
a list of the people he’s upset - fills First Touch.
Paradoxically, although that last list tends to obscure the success
he’s achieved as a football manager of extraordinary gifts,
it also gives a clue as to why he’s been so successful and
why he has been, for the most part, a breath of fresh air in the
Premier League over these last three years.
That overweening self-confidence that borders on arrogance. How
much is it an act, how much is it the real Mourinho?
I suspect there’s a great deal of psychological warfare being
played out there, the idea that if you say you’re the best
often enough, other people will start to believe it. More important,
you might believe it yourself.
It’s not a new trick, it’s nothing that Brian Clough or
Bill Shankly weren’t past masters of in the past, nothing that
Sir Alex hasn’t done these last two decades. When you win,
it’s only to be expected because you are the best. On the rare
occasion you’ve been defeated, it’s down to some outrageous
quirk of fate, not because the opposition is superior.
In England, we see that as being a bad loser, of failing to be gracious
in defeat - which could explain why, as a nation, we get beaten
so regularly. As a professional, Mourinho has no time for defeat
and, if it does arise, he must rationalise it away as the fault
of someone or something else. That’s part of his armour, at
least as far as the outside world goes.
But on the training pitch, it’ll be a different matter entirely.
Mourinho is nobody’s fool and his reading of the game, the
way he dissects it and rebuilds it is ruthlessly forensic. He knows
why it is that Chelsea have lost a game. More important, he sees
where it is that Chelsea might have lost a game, fixing faults before
they’re costly. That is the edge, the difference between being
good and being special.
Above all, Mourinho is a master at building a team. Yes, at Chelsea
he has the advantage of Roman Abramovich’s skip sized wallet.
But having the pick of the world’s very best brings its own
problems, not that you get much sympathy for that, and rightly so.
But their triumph has been a team triumph, a team that is hungry
to win more and more. That takes some doing, especially when you’re
trying to mould together some of the most talented players on earth,
earning some of the biggest paycheques in the game and, presumably,
with some of the largest egos in the business too.
Yet egos don’t appear to be an issue at the Bridge, perhaps
because every one of them has to be subordinated to the demands
of the club. If you can’t take on that discipline, you can’t
play for Chelsea. And who in their right mind wouldn’t want
to play for Chelsea? The most impressive thing about them is that
every player that goes on the field makes it clear that they really
do want to play for Chelsea, that winning games for the football
club means something to them.
Many commentators, most of whom should know better, have fallen
over themselves to write Mourinho off this season, to say that simply
because Chelsea are not romping away with the Premiership, he’s
lost that golden touch.
But as we enter April, one trophy is already safely collected, his
side still has as good a chance as any of lifting the Champions
League, there’s a chance of the FA Cup, and Manchester United
are not out of sight in the Premiership, particularly as they have
yet to go to Stamford Bridge. He could yet end this “disappointing”
season with an unprecedented quadruple. Now that really would be
special. And where do you go from there?
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