Jose Mourinho might not be as special anymore, but the Benfica coach will still command center stage when he walks out at Stamford Bridge at Chelsea on Tuesday.
Last dance? Probably.
Mourinho’s longevity and ability to land another big job just when the last one appeared to take him to the end of the road means that you can never quite be certain what will happen next with the 62-year-old. But with his surprise return to Benfica earlier this month, preceding what many expected to be a move into international management with Portugal after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Champions League clash with his former club on matchday 2 has all the feel of a curtain call in front of the supporters who have loved him with more devotion than any others.
FC Porto was the club with whom Mourinho made his name, winning six major trophies, including the Champions League and UEFA Cup, but it was at Chelsea that he announced himself to the world by telling anyone prepared to listen that he was a “Special One.”
“Please don’t call me arrogant,” Mourinho said in his first press conference as Chelsea manager in July 2004. “But I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
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Mourinho has been called plenty of things since — praise and criticism in equal measure — and there is no doubt that he returns to Chelsea, who he guided to Premier League titles during his two spells as manager (2004-2007 & 2013-2015), with the stardust of his 2004 persona long since having worn off. But it’s too easy to fall into the trap of dismissing Mourinho as an angry, disruptive, dislikeable busted flush due to the ever-decreasing circles during the second half of his career.
Sources who knew Mourinho before and after his three-year stint as Real Madrid manager between 2010-2013 say that his personality changed after a bruising period at the Santiago Bernabéu, when the rise of Pep Guardiola and Barcelona, combined with clashes with influential players in the Real dressing room, extinguished his bravado and forced the combative and malevolent side of his character to the fore.
Since leaving Madrid, Mourinho’s success has diminished with every club he has managed. It is why his last appointment, before Benfica, was with Fenerbahce in the Turkish Super Lig. Peak Mourinho would never have contemplated managing in Turkey. But his return to Chelsea on Tuesday — he has previously been back there during stints with Internazionale, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur — should offer a reminder of how influential and significant Mourinho was during the stellar years of his early career in management. He won 17 major honors, including two Champions League and six domestic titles in eight years.
Nobody has since come close to emulating his 2004 Champions League success with Porto — every subsequent winner has come from Europe’s big five leagues — and Mourinho changed the Premier League landscape forever.
Back then, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side had just become the “Invincibles” by winning the Premier League without losing a game. Wenger’s team, led by Thierry Henry, looked set to dominate English football alongside Sir Alex Ferguson’s United — the two clubs had won the last nine titles between them and six FA Cups.
But Mourinho’s Chelsea won successive titles in 2005 and 2006 with a team of phenomenal strength and power, including Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba, that — 20 years on — gets unfairly overlooked in the pantheon of great Premier League sides.
Mourinho, helped of course by owner Roman Abramovich’s multi-million pound spending spree, was the brash new kid on the block. Wenger was never able to compete with him — Arsenal would win just one major trophy over the next 10 years.
Ferguson’s United took three years to overhaul Chelsea, with the Old Trafford manager admitting that Mourinho forced him to completely change his approach to winning the league. He had to make his players fitter, stronger and ready to start the race from the first game, rather than previously building up towards the title during the season.
But while Mourinho has become one of football’s most divisive figures, those players who enjoyed success under him during his prime regard him as unsurpassed in terms of managers they have worked with before and after.
“The very best I have ever worked with,” said former Chelsea captain Terry.
Midfielder Lampard praised Mourinho’s professionalism, telling the BBC: “The detail he brought to Chelsea was so forward-thinking at the time. Every training session had immense detail and was planned and structured so that you’d know what you were doing from the start.
“I don’t think that was so evident for me before that. It was more you’d turn up for training and it would just happen. I certainly appreciated as a player and it’s what the modern player expects now.”
Some high-profile 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 having what could best be described as “strained” relations with him.
When he was fired by Manchester United in December 2018 after 2½ years in charge, one source told ESPN that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as Mourinho’s replacement as the “anti-venom” to his embittered predecessor. But most of the negative elements of his character will be overlooked by the Chelsea fans when Mourinho takes his place in the technical area on Tuesday.
It is the place where Jose Mourinho showed the best of himself — and sometimes the worst — and maybe it is the time and the place to remember that once upon a time, he really was the hottest ticket in the game.
You’ve built a lot of trust through your consistency.