He had taken Porto as far as he could so moved on to Chelsea. The only trophy to elude him at Stamford Bridge was the Champion’s League but, when he left, he was still young enough to be able to return one day to win it, (or so he probably thought).
Inter Milan proved to be a relatively easy challenge during which he even managed to come up with a way of beating Barcelona over two legs in the Champion’s League and go on to win it. This was when Barcelona were the best team in the world. (more…)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…………”
And so it goes on. This extract, as learned readers will know, is taken from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. In some ways, it describes quite well the period between Louis van Gaal being told to do one and JosĂ© Mourinho being welcomed into the spider’s web which masquerades as the manager’s office at Manchester United. (more…)
Sir Alex Ferguson retired. David Moyes came in. Hailed as the “Chosen One” he rather quickly became the “Frozen One” as results started to go against him. He also managed to break some unwanted records in his time and the list is as follows:-
1 – United suffered their first defeat to Newcastle at Old Trafford in 41 years.
2 – Everton’s victory at Old Trafford confirmed their first league double over the Reds since 1970.
3 – As a result of that defeat, United had won just one of their 12 meetings with the Premier League’s top eight sides that season. (more…)
Ronald Koeman must resign himself to the fact that a challenge to break into the top six will probably have to wait until next season. Some wise spending in the Summer transfer window and his astute management should see a more concerted effort from Everton next time out.
He will certainly be expected to improve upon the finishes of Roberto Martinez and David Moyes as he has a sizeable amount of cash available thanks to the new owner, Farhad Moshiri. (more…)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Well, almost. Mourinho is certainly more like Ferguson than Moyes or van Gaal were. Even taking into account that Moyes is from Glasgow he had little else in common with Ferguson.
Some of the press have been reporting an interview given by Lord Ferg to BBC Sport during which he mentioned how Mourinho has now calmed down on the touchline, pointing out that it was his Latin temperament which was to blame for the occasional outbursts. (more…)
For a short period of time, a couple of years ago, Brendan Rodgers looked as though he may win the Premier League title with Liverpool. He certainly came closer than they have done for many a year and all the stupid cliches came babbling forth from the experts and the press. My favourite is, “they will never have a better chance of winning it than they did that year“.
That, of course, is complete nonsense as, under JĂĽrgen Klopp, they may very well have their best chance of winning it, although it is yet to come. (more…)
For the last few seasons Manchester United have lacked passion. They have lacked passion from the manager and they have lacked passion from the players. Only now, under José Mourinho, are they starting to show a little of the old commitment and desire.
David Moyes may have been a fiery Scot but he was overawed by the players at Manchester United because they had won much more than he had and there was little, if anything, he could teach them. (more…)
When José Mourinho was sacked by Roman Abramovich a year ago, many people thought he had lost the plot and had reached the stage where managing a top flight football club was no longer the challenge he required.
He was well into his second coming at the club and had won the Premier League title in the previous season. So what happened?
Did he lose the players? It is an overused expression nowadays but it may have been true in this case, almost certainly with some of them. (more…)
JosĂ© Mourinho appears to handle failure in the same way as he handles success. The success is well known and has been demonstrated on several occasions. It is usually a sullen look, a half smirk of “I knew we would win it” followed by a disappearing act leaving his players to enjoy the limelight while he sneaks off home to be with his family.
For failure take the same sequence but leave out the half smirk. He has yet to perfect a unique reaction to failure because it is still a relatively new experience for him. (more…)
This is the latest incarnation in a fairly long history of the José Mourinho persecution complex. Nothing is his fault and the whole world is out to get him.
In truth this attitude helped to develop a siege mentality during his successful years at Chelsea and Real Madrid . He managed to convince his players that they were universally hated and nobody, except their own fans, wished them well.
It is not dissimilar to the way Sir Alex Ferguson used to motivate his teams. Proving to be the best was always, in his opinion, the only way to show those doubters and haters how wrong they were. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 