Love him or hate him, José Mourinho still delivers

We can all hear and read that José Mourinho is supposedly done. That his methods, his football style, and his charisma are a matter of the past. That the new era of managers came with all their new methods and pushed José aside. Well, I think they are wrong. Really, really wrong. And I think his results support my judgment. José Mourinho still delivers and delivered everywhere he had been.

Let’s look at the facts. By recently winning the Conference League with A. S. Roma, Jośe Mourinho became the first manager to win all European Cups (Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League) in history. He had played 5 European finals and astonishingly won every 5 of them. Moreover, he had played in 15 finals and won 12 of them across all competitions. By adding that he is the manager that was knocked out in the semi-final of the Champions League the most times (6), his greatness of “being around the block” is even bigger.

So, how did everything escalate to the point where his geniuses were treated as no longer required among top clubs by the media, fans, and (some) owners? How is it possible that just getting a result is not enough anymore? To understand that we have to simply put together every piece of the puzzle from the past and present.

I must admit that the Portuguese came on the scene under my radar. Winning UEFA Cup with Porto is not something I had put much attention to in 2003. But after stunning the whole of Europe by winning the Champions League with Porto one year later, I started to monitor him very closely.

Winning such prestige cup earned him a »special« move to Chelsea. Immediately, he began to frustrate me by securing the Premier League titles for two consecutive seasons. Throwing one of the winning medals among the fans stating that he doesn’t need two of the same kind on the contrary amused me up to this very day.

Later, José Mourinho moved to Inter where he achieved everything there was to achieve, and eventually moved on to Real Madrid. Logically. Every top football manager somehow finds a way to get in touch with the most successful European football entity. Everything was pointing in the direction that the 59-year-old reached a peak.

With Real Madrid and later again Chelsea, he secured two league titles, but by not winning the Champions League again, other managers who did emerged onto the scene. However, that was not the crucial turning point. The first one was his hot temper. He started to argue with the club’s key players (Iker Casillas and Juan Mata as the most famous examples). Furthermore, football was getting oriented towards attacking play more than ever before. The feeling of getting a result besides playing attractively started to prevail.

José was on the other hand, always known as someone who finds an opponent’s weakness and exploits it to the detail at whatever cost. His defensive, often hard to watch principle of “it’s ok not to win, but we can not lose” lost admirer after admired each year. When he left Real, they soon picked up a remarkable three consecutive Champions League trophies, so the timing was not on his side as well.

Despite everything, I was very delighted to see him get the chance with Manchester United. The Red Devils were drowning and needed a knight in shining armor. The expected followed. As odd as it may sound, up to this day, José Mourinho is the man who brought the last three trophies to Old Trafford. His reputation bounced back.

Now, here is where it got tricky. The Portuguese is known that he achieves his best in the second season when managing a club. So, after not upgrading the situation in Manchester United a year later (finishing second in the Premier League and losing two cup finals - European Super Cup and FA Cup) everybody wrote him off before the new season even began.

In addition, there was for the first time the clear evidence that José Mourinho moved away from his principles. And not by a bit, but quite a lot. Under his second season spell, Manchester United was perhaps playing the best football after Sir Alex Ferguson left, but came out empty-handed. By looking at the team week and week out there was a constant feeling that his (lethal) touch was missing. After a series of bad results and arguments with … almost everybody at the club … he left and later join Tottenham Hotspur. A club that, respectively, had the lowest rename after Porto.

That was another piece of evidence suggesting the Portuguese had to step back and prove his worth in order to get his hands on one of the top teams in Europe again. Many argued that was the case, especially when closely seeing his day-to-day work on a must-see series of All or Nothing.

To be fair, we will never know the answer. In the mixture of Super League nonsense, Daniel Levy, owner of Tottenham Hotspur, fired José Mourinho, just before he could see his team clash with Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final. “I will be back,” he stated like we all know who.

In conclusion, José is back. He is back at his finest. Winning a Conference League with A. S. Roma is just the first step in proving a lot of football people wrong and proving he still is among the best in his profession. Will he ever be given another chance at the top? We’ll see. Until then, I hardly think he will ever have to post his CV on Instagram to get a job. His team may not be the most eye-catching to watch, but he is and will be there to bring things that count the most. Trophies. Because in 10 years, fans won’t remember how his team played. Just what they achieved together.