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| Via ESPN |
By Zach Ricchiuti
"Everything you touch turns to ash."
"The job won't save you."
"If only half you motherfuckers at the district attorney's office didn't want to be judges, didn't want to be partners in some downtown law firm ... If half of you had the fucking balls to follow through, you know what would happen? A guy like that would be indicted, tried and convicted. And the rest of 'em would back up enough, so we could push a clean case or two through your courthouse. But no, everybody stays friends. Everybody gets paid. And everybody's got a fucking future."
I've spent this past week re-watching The Wire, and I can't help but keep thinking how similar Jose Mourinho's career path is to Jimmy McNulty's five-season descent through alcoholism, depression and excellent police work.
For the uninitiated, McNulty's arc goes something like this: Through defiance and arrogance, he talks his way onto the biggest case in the department, rallies the crew behind him, puts together a brilliant investigation, alienates the crew through his intensity and addiction, falls out with his superiors and gets kicked out. Along the way, he costs the Baltimore PD thousands of dollars in wiretaps and surveillance equipment. It's a cycle that repeats three times throughout the series.
Aside from McNulty's raging alcoholism, Mourinho seems hellbent on mirroring The Wire character's self-destructive career. He declared himself the "special one" upon arriving at Chelsea, and then went on to win two league titles, an FA Cup and a league cup. But his internal popularity soured following a power struggle between he and owner Roman Abramovich's advisors, and soon he was off to coach Inter Milan. There, he won an historic treble, yet in the process spent so much money that the club is still financially crippled.
Mourinho was on the move again, and the allure of Real Madrid proved too much to resist. Pundits and madridistas thought his style of play too negative for Madrid, his attitude too biting and his ego too large. Yet the desire to end Barcelona's dominance over La Liga overrode those fears, and soon Mourinho had built a vicious counter-attacking machine. Led by Ronaldo, Real Madrid was the fast and violent yin to Barca's methodical yang.
But while Marcelo Bielsa, manager of Athletic Bilbao, is said to be physically exhausting with his relentless pressure and overlapping style, Mourinho is exhausting on an emotional level. (There is an all-too-teling video of him leaving Inter Milan, with defender Marco Materazzi bawling like a baby in his arms.) And at Madrid, his inevitable slow demise as a result of that is playing out before us.
Real Madrid is an institution of Spanish nationalism and pride. It was Franco's club during his dictatorship, and received suspicious government assistance in a number of cases. Spanish newspaper Marca is practically a team spokesman, and managers come and go as quickly as the rain in Spain. That institutional culture is clashing now with Mourinho, who clearly believes that his word is absolute law. He disregarded his advisors again this week and dropped keeper Iker Casillas, prolonging a power struggle that has sunk team morale and Mourinho's job approval. It seems that people around the club are simply fed up with Mourinho's belief that he must control every aspect of the club.
The squad is also deeply divided along national lines. It it said that there is a Portuguese contingent led by Ronaldo and a Spanish one with Casillas and Sergio Ramos in charge. So while Mourinho fights Real Madrid's directors for autonomy, he is at the same time battling to unify the club's player factions. While Casillas could probably do a little more on the goal-stopping end, his benching is also partly a declaration of strength on Mourinho's end.
But it is all a slow exercise in failure. Reports leaked last week that Mourinho will part with Madrid in June. The league title all but belongs to Barcelona, with Madrid now 16 points behind the league leaders. Mourinho's time and reputation in the city now hinges on the team's upcoming Champions League performance. Failure to bring that trophy back will surely outweigh his triumph last year over Barcelona.
This saga all says more about Mourinho as a coach than any of his previous spells. His intense, almost fanatical addiction winning and success made him the most sought-after coach for big clubs needing quick success. But Mourinho burns almost everything he touches. He spends a ton of money, is inconsistent and torches any trace of progress when he's thrown out the door. It's exactly why Mourinho and Madrid were a perfect match, destined to succeed, and then destined to fail.
Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in '96.
4 comments:
The only problem that the author talks about is nationality difference between portugal and spain. Rest is just opinions without solid facts.
3/10 wouldnt read again.
I enjoyed the article.
But I don't like reducing everything I experience into x/10. So I can't bring up your average.
Mourinho's MO is short-term success. Clubs know what they are signing up for when they hire him. Still not sure what you mean by "Mourinho burns almost everything he touches", from a personal standpoint? club standpoint? If we are talking personal, only relationships that ever went south were with Roman and Valdano--which speaks more to Roman than it does Mou, taking into account Chelsea's managerial merry-go-round. Valdano meddled in day to day team affairs, and was properly shown the door. From a professional standpoint--Chelsea enjoyed moderate success under Ancelotti ( Poor decision to fire him by Roman, could of won more)--In regards to Inter- Mou is guilty of bad spending with numerous transfers (Quaresma),but Inter had broken the world transfer record twice prior to Mou with Ronaldo and Vieri. Moratti has a habit of bad spending. Milito was Mou's most expensive Inter signing at 22MM Euros, doesn't seem high when you take into account that Andy Carroll cost Liverpool 35M pounds. Many argue that his boisterous media interactions shelter player criticism from the journalists. Personally, I think he likes the limelight, but also looks to protect his players. I also, don't understand your point about him being inconsistent. Where is he inconsistent? He walks into a club and demands complete control in return for short-term success. He's consistent in the sense that it takes him 1 year to adapt, and a 2nd yr to win. Guardiola, Wenger, SAF, all ask for same club control--but enjoy a long-term success vision. Unfortunately, in today's world and transfer market, the exorbitant prices of players demand a CL spot in return and encourage short-term success in order to service debt. As to Real Madrid, I dont think there is a more difficult club hierarchy to deal with. Perez is notorious for his involvement in team affairs, which is opposed by Mou when he walks through the doors. You bring up a great point in speaking about the Iberian divide in the locker room which I think is understated. Cultural tensions run extremely high, and Mou has done himself no favors with his high-energy, in your face personality coupled with the fact that he's FOREIGN. In short, the Spanish give a shit that it's a PORTUGUESE guy running the show, italians care less, and english don't care at all. I'm assuming the benching of Casillas prompted this article. As Captain of Real Madrid, Casillas should of never taken sides in the cultural division among players and he did. He needed to be the glue and he failed. I don't buy Mou's theory that Adan is a better keeper, but I do understand him punishing Casillas for failing to be the voice of reason. Mou has also benched big names in the past, namely Ronaldo last season. Make no mistake that a 16 point deficit is unacceptable, but plenty of the blame should be spread. The tone of your article suggests your discontent with the current short-term, big spending,mentality of Europe's footballing elite, and I agree that it's a terrible way to do business. Over the coming years, clubs will go bust, and the cycle will reverse itself. But, as a club owner, european football is at its pinnacle from a media standpoint, too much money to be lost, sitting on the sidelines and not going all in. Not saying, I agree but at the end of the day we all know that Clubs are profit centers for owners/investors. So to recap, NO I don't think Mourinho's stint with Real Madrid tells us more about him, quite opposite, I think there's much more to be learned about Real Madrid, state of european football, and cultural divide.
Rich your comment is fantastic, and I would never try and understate Mourinho's ability as a manager, and I didn't breach this topic as I should have, but there are major doubts over Mourinho's ability to move forward and manage a club like Manchester United. What I mean is that with this spell, I believe it has established another precedent of Mourinho being a manager capable of achieving success immediately, but leaving a chasm when he leaves. The form of several Madrid players is poor, Di Maria is a shadow of last year's form, Ronaldo is unhappy (although I wouldn't blame Mourinho), Benzema is not playing good, and the squad seems exhausted. Chelsea aside, which I think can thank Mourinho for much of their recent success, many of Inter's players have struggled. Sneijder's situation is complicated, but Mourinho's push for success with them severely strained the club, politically and financially. Stramaccioni is showing how a young manager with a vision and home town ties can revitalize a club without breaking the bank financially.
Mourinho is a fantastic manager with the ability to immediately achieve success, but he requires the kind of autonomy and financial stress that will leave most clubs in painful situations after he's gone. Funnily enough, I see him either at Chelsea or possibly Bayern Munich next year. At Chelsea, he would be perfectly positioned to build on whatever Rafa leaves behind should he be removed, and at Bayern he would encounter similar problems as Madrid but they're a club that also requires the kind of immediate success Mourinho is familiar with.
-Zach
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