Andy Dunn Article: LFC MUST Consider The Special One
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I think you'll find that I didn't make a case for Mourinho one way or the other.
I just took exception to the tone of your post given that you struggled to get basic facts right.
That's just nonsense DB - you're talking about a team that has either won it or finished 2nd since Rafa was winning la liga titles with Valencia. That's not a team on the slide.
If you have a so-so left winger then probably the best one around is up for grabs, you'd go for it wouldn't you? Why should it be different with Managers?
That said, he wouldn't be interested in a million years.
That said, he wouldn't be interested in a million years.
Ha. I lived there for 4 months loved the place.
Fair enough.
Can I ask you where you put Jose on your list of top manager so?
Did I miss out any other basic facts? I may of got carried away but it just annoys me when I see such dismissive remarks about probably the greatest manager to emerge in the last decade at least.
Much like in Scotland with Rangers and Celtic (up until this year) Steve, if you don't win the league your league season is a failure and with each passing season without a title it builds to a massive issue and seen as a side on the slide. Add to that your talking about side who had struggled to make any sort of real impact in the CL in those seasons too I think its not a wild suggestion to say Madrid were in decline when Jose took them over.
To be honest, I often don't quite know what to make of Mourinho. It's easy to get lost in the ridiculousness that surrounds him and forget about the real footballing side of things.
Mourinho's record will undoubtedly ensure that his name gets a mention when people discuss the greatest managers the game has seen and then it all depends on what criteria you're judging people against. Mourinho will always come out favourably if you go by stats or records such as number of European Cup wins, number of leagues he's won titles in etc. If you were to use sustainability, longevity and team building as criteria also he'd probably drop in the pecking order quite dramatically. For me he falls into the second tier of great managers.
He has clearly demonstrated that he excels at getting very good teams to realize that last 5-10% of their potential. That's essentially what he did at Chelsea and then Moratti and Perez brought him in to do likewise at Inter and Real Madrid respectively. I know less about his time at Porto other than the fact that they were a bit of a sleeping giant and although they had great players it was him that built a winning team there. It's his achievements at Porto that I respect the most.
So he's very talented at what he does and he's achieved a lot of success. I can respect that but there will always be this sense that Mourinho arrived into football at just the right time and he got to work in very favourable conditions - the rise of the super rich clubs and the declining ability of others to compete. I won't go into the detail about his time at various clubs because you could probably spend a long time discussing what he inherited, the state of the league (and others in Europe) and what he left behind. It's actually quite an interesting debate from a wider perspective.
There are quite a few managers that have done the rounds in Europe and have an impressive list of honours on their CV. There are far fewer that have built teams, a legacy and that is something that elevates the very good to the greatest. That is why for me Mourinho won't break into the upper echelon until he proves that he can achieve success working in more normal conditions where immediate gratification has to be balanced with mid to long term sustainability.
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