José Mourinho, although his shine is no longer what it used to be, is still a media magnet. The Benfica coach will steal all the attention when he steps onto the Stamford Bridge pitch on Tuesday, facing Chelsea, his former home.
One last function? Probably. Mourinho’s ability to resurface and get great jobs, even when it seemed his career was coming to an end, makes it impossible to predict his future. However, his recent return to Benfica, anticipating what many expected to be a step into international football with Portugal after the 2026 World Cup, makes the Champions League clash against his former club a kind of farewell to the fans who adored him more than anyone.
It was at FC Porto where Mourinho forged his name, winning six major titles, including the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. However, it was at Chelsea where he introduced himself to the world as the “Special One”.
“Please don’t call me arrogant,” Mourinho said in his first press conference as Chelsea manager in July 2004. “But I am a European champion and I think I am special.”
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Since then, Mourinho has received praise and criticism in equal measure. He returns to Chelsea, where he won Premier League titles in his two spells (2004-2007 and 2013-2015), with the shine of his 2004 personality already worn off. However, it’s easy to fall into the trap of dismissing him as a confrontational and unpleasant coach due to the ups and downs of the second half of his career.
Sources close to Mourinho before and after his time at Real Madrid (2010-2013) claim that his personality changed after a difficult period at the Santiago Bernabéu. The rise of Pep Guardiola and Barcelona, along with conflicts with influential players in the merengue dressing room, extinguished his bravado and brought out his more combative side.
Since he left Madrid, Mourinho’s success has diminished in each club he has managed. Therefore, his last position before Benfica was at Fenerbahce in the Turkish Super League. The Mourinho at his best would never have considered managing in Turkey. But his return to Chelsea on Tuesday should serve as a reminder of his influence in the golden years of his coaching career. He won 17 major titles, including two Champions Leagues and six domestic titles in eight years.
Nobody has managed to emulate his 2004 success with Porto, and Mourinho changed the landscape of the Premier League forever.En sus dos etapas como entrenador del Chelsea, Jose Mourinho ganó ocho trofeos, incluyendo tres títulos de la Premier League.At that moment, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal had just become the “Invincibles” by winning the Premier League without losing a match. Wenger’s team, led by Thierry Henry, seemed destined to dominate English football along with Sir Alex Ferguson’s United, the two clubs having won the last nine titles between them and six FA Cups.
But Mourinho’s Chelsea won consecutive titles in 2005 and 2006 with a team of great strength and power, including Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, which, 20 years later, is unfairly overlooked in the pantheon of great Premier League teams.
Mourinho, aided by Roman Abramovich’s investment, was the new kid on the block. Wenger could never compete with him: Arsenal would only win one major trophy in the following 10 years.
Ferguson’s United took three years to overcome Chelsea, and the Old Trafford manager admitted that Mourinho forced him to completely change his approach to win the league. He had to make his players fitter, stronger, and ready to start the race from the first match, instead of building towards the title during the season.
Although Mourinho has become one of the most divisive figures in football, the players who enjoyed success under his direction in his prime consider him unsurpassed in terms of coaches they have worked with before and after.
“The best I’ve worked with,” said former Chelsea captain Terry.
John Terry
Midfielder Lampard praised Mourinho’s professionalism: “The detail he brought to Chelsea was very advanced for the time. Every training session had immense detail and was planned and structured so that you knew what you were going to do from the beginning.”
Some renowned players who encountered Mourinho in the second half of his career would be less complimentary, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Paul Pogba, and Luke Shaw, who had tense relationships with him.
When he was fired by Manchester United in December 2018, after 2 and a half years in charge, a source said that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as Mourinho’s “antidote.” But most of the negative elements of his personality will be overlooked by Chelsea fans when Mourinho takes his place in the technical area on Tuesday.
It’s the place where José Mourinho showed the best of himself, and sometimes the worst, and perhaps it’s the time and place to remember that, at one time, he really was the most important figure in the game.
