Is Mourinho good or bad for football?

Is José Mourinho good or bad for football? It’s a simple question with a not so simple answer.

Last month whilst randomly trawling through the vast expanse of videos on YouTube I stumbled upon a collection of video tributes to Mourinho. I watched them all with a smile on my face. So many unforgettable memories packed into a small compilation. I chuckled as I watched the great man sprinting excitedly down the touchline at Old Trafford after his FC Porto side grabbed a late winner in 2004. I laughed out loud when he gave a shocked Carles Puyol a smack across the face in the Nou Camp tunnel.  I admired his cool demeanour as he casually shook the hands of his coaching staff shortly before the end of a game, declaring “Job done.”

His cheeky, flamboyant, entertaining antics never fail to make me smile. His personality impresses me, yet what impresses me most are his incredible achievements as a manager. Mourinho’s 47 years old, 21 years younger than the great Sir Alex Ferguson. The Portuguese has been a manager for just 10 years, meaning the current Manchester United boss had been in management for 26 years before a young José was handed the reins at Benfica in 2000. However in the last ten years Mourinho’s won two Champions’ League titles, an achievement that took Fergie 36 years. In addition to his Champions’ Leagues, Mourinho’s won six domestic titles (two with Porto, two with Chelsea, two with Inter), three domestic cups, two English League Cups, three domestic super cups and the 2003 UEFA cup with FC Porto.

Upon his arrival at Chelsea he declared himself The Special One, and who could really argue. His success with numerous clubs is unparalleled in the modern era.

What baffles the football community is how he commands unearthly respect and love from his players. Frank Lampard struggled to explain his methods, simply stating “He makes you feel ten feet tall. He makes you think you’re the best player on Earth.” He inspires his players to achieve great feats through his unique and mysterious motivation techniques.

Mourinho is one of the most impressive men in world sport. In fact I would say he’s one of the most impressive men in the world at the moment.

Love him or hate him, every man would love to be him. He’s the most successful football manager in recent times. He’s a man of outstanding intelligence, wisdom and wit with incredible linguistic abilities. He’s a man of style and elegance who despite nearing 50 is still adored by women of all ages. In short he’s the perfect man.

However every now and again he causes controversy in a way that forces us to question his greatness.

Last night Mourinho’s Real Madrid were leading 4-0 against Ajax, and on their way through to the knock-out stages of the Champions’ League with a game left to play in group G against Auxerre. In the closing minutes of the game Xabi Alonso, one of the top footballing brains in Europe, inexplicably took an age to take a free kick inside his own half. After losing patience the referee showed Alonso his second yellow card of the night and Alonso was sent off. Nobody could understand why Alonso had been so careless, having already been booked.

A few minutes later his team-mate Sergio Ramos copied Alonso and delayed the taking of a free-kick to a point where the referee had to show him a second yellow card. As Ramos walked off he shook the hand of the bemused ref and thanked him for the dismissal. Every viewer across the world was wondering why Alonso and Ramos had seemingly deliberately sough red cards, thus ruling them out of the clash with Auxerre.

And then it hit us!

Though the match still holds some importance for Auxerre who need to beat the Spaniards to have a chance of qualification for the Europa League,  this fixture is little more than a friendly for Real who have cruised through to the last 16 of the Champions’ league.  Therefore Ramos and Alonso’s red cards mean the two are suspended for a friendly. This means that their disciplinary slates have been wiped clean, effectively eliminating the risk of them getting suspended in the vital knock-out rounds for an accumulation of yellow cards.

This move has received a mixed reaction. Marca, the Madrid sports daily called it “cunning” yet Sky Sports’ Richard Keys thought the move was “not in the spirit of the game.” It’s the kind of tactic that only Mourinho could devise. His mind is perfectly engineered to bending the rules in such a way and he deserves credit for spotting the fault in the rulebook that allows his team to act in such a manner.

Yet I’m sure we wouldn’t appreciate his intellect quite so much if this became a regular sight in European competitions.

This isn’t the first time Mourinho’s failed to act in the interests of the sport. A known advocate of diving, he’s gone to great lengths to defend his players in the past when they’ve committed indefensible tackles or used violent conduct on the pitch.

Can José go too far at times? Of course he does! Who can forget his shameful, unsubstantiated accusation that ref Anders Frisk met with Frank Raijkaard at half time in Chelsea’s 2005 fixture against Barcelona in the Nou Camp. This accusation led to Chelsea fans bombarding Frisk and his family with death threats, forcing the referee to retire.

Is Mourinho good or bad for football? That’s for you to decide. It’s his controversial side that makes him the marmite figure he is today. Love him or hate him, he’s provided us with many great talking points and tremendous entertainment over the years, and long may it continue.

I’m salivating at thinking of Real Madrid’s clash with FC Barcelona in El Classico next Monday!