Posts Tagged ‘Inter Milan’

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Arséne Wenger and Louis van Gaal have a couple of things in common. Firstly, they are both past the 65 years of age mark. Secondly, they have been unable to adapt themselves to compete in the modern football world.

It is now seven years since van Gaal won La Liga, his last major championship title and a whopping thirteen years since Wenger last won the Premier League. Yes they have both won cups since those days but even a blind squirrel will eventually find a nut and they were both managing historically successful teams at the time. (more…)

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What continually drives people like JosĂ© Mourinho to succeed? It isn’t money. Alright, in the early days of their career it IS money but, after the initial successes have eliminated the need to ever work again, what becomes the motivating factor?

It is a question asked of many of the world’s richest people and, in a lot of cases, it is STILL money. The quest to be the richest in the world, the additional power that even more money brings with it. These are forces which have been known to propel the wealthy to even greater things.

Generally not, however, where top football managers are concerned. (more…)

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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…)

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In the 1960’s Chelsea, for some reason, were always better away from home than they were at home. Could it have had anything to do with the crowd being so far from the pitch, seemingly a current problem for West Ham United?

The days of Peter Osgood, Charlie Cooke, Peter Bonetti, Ron and Alan Harris et al produced far superior returns on the road than any other team. In fact, if Chelsea could have corrected their home form during this period they wouldn’t have had to wait quite as long as they did to win the title. (more…)

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Manchester United appointed Jose Mourinho in the full knowledge that he rarely stays at any club for more than two years, whether the reason for departure is his choosing or not. He has since indicated that he would like to stay at Old Trafford for “many years“.

Manchester City did the same with Pep Guardiola. Having spent five years in charge at Barcelona, (one of them with the B team), he developed his current wanderlust and spent a further two years in charge of Bayern MĂĽnich. The impression is that, if he is successful at City, then he may be talked into staying longer. (more…)

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The same may possibly be said about Antonio Conte but, as yet, we don’t know enough about him or his motives to put forward a case one way or the other.

Other older managers such as Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson and even, to a lesser extent, Manuel Pelligrini, Louis van Gaal and Claudio Ranieri took jobs at clubs where there was a challenge. (more…)

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For the first time in a while, the two master tacticians meet in a domestic league game. In truth though, there is little difference nowadays between meeting in the league and meeting in the Champion’s League, the latter being an impossibility until next season, at least.

People will say, ” it’s different when it’s a league game,” or “it’s not the same as in a knockout tournament.” Actually, there are many similarities. Both would want to win their home game in both competitions but would, grudgingly, take not losing as a pretty close second choice. Both would want a point, or a draw, depending upon the competition and which stage has been reached, from the away game. (more…)

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Despite his name Zlatan Ibrahimović is Swedish. His father was from Bijeljina in Bosnia and his mother from Prkos in Croatia. They met, however, in Sweden after both emigrating there a few years earlier.

When Zlatan was six they gave him a pair of football boots and, apart from a short time when he was fifteen, he has never looked back!

Fast forward to 1996 when he joined Malmo and stayed with them until 2001, experiencing relegation, promotion and little else, although it was during his time there that Arsene Wenger tried, unsuccessfully, to sign him for Arsenal. (more…)

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1. A Winning Mentality

Wherever Mourinho has been he has won trophies. Beginning with Porto back in his homeland all those years ago he took this unfancied team to Champion’s League glory. Obviously, domestically he had already won the Portuguese league in order to qualify.

Since leaving Porto for Chelsea he has had one success after another. In fact, since his first club, Benfica, back in 2000 he has managed clubs in a total of 765 games winning 505, a win percentage of 66.01%

It must also be remembered that this success hasn’t always been with the biggest clubs, but some of it has. This brings us to the next point:

2. Big Club Management Experience

Mourinho, as we know, has won the Champion’s League with Porto, in Portugal and Internazionale in Italy. He has also won domestic titles in Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. He has proven, unlike van Gaal and even Guardiola, that he can do the business when there is realistic competition around. (more…)

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Given that the top coaches in club football have a few million £/€/$ in their bank accounts, why would they want to take up positions where, at best, they win a trophy at a club where that is the least that is expected anyway and, at worst, they face a humiliating exit, sacked for failing to deliver the least that was expected anyway?

One of the obvious answers to this question is, “not money!” So what is a less obvious answer?

If we take Jose Mourinho as the first example, he is driven by the desire to succeed. As with many megalomaniacs he only desires success at the top level. He doesn’t see taking over a first division side, as Brian Clough did for example, as his type of challenge. It would take too long and Jose craves almost instant success.

Mourinho wanted to win the title in three countries. He has achieved that. He also wants to win the Champion’s League with three different clubs, he is one away from achieving that particular goal. His problem is that, if he were to take a job at a lower league club, then the chances of attaining his particular goals are reduced tremendously. (more…)