United were losing their power, they just didn’t realise it
They treat me differently but there are powers you cannot fight I think people are happy now and they believe in our future
JOSE MOURINHO has not been far from the headlines all season, his first in charge of England’s biggest club, Manchester United. In a detailed and enlightening interview with his friend Nuno Luz of Portuguese television channel SIC broadcast in his homeland last week, Mourinho spoke openly about his work and career in Manchester.
Here is Jose in his own words. United play Middlesbrough today with one trophy in the bag and a top-four finish and Europa League silverware still to fight for.
BALANCE HAS SHIFTED
I THINK the club got so used to winning and having success, maybe they didn’t realise other clubs were growing, even when Alex was in his last years at the club.
The Premier League were creating conditions for other clubs to become financially powerful and that has definitely transformed the League. When I first arrived at Chelsea, I wanted to buy Manchester City’s best player [Shaun WrightPhillips] and I did. Manchester United wanted Tottenham’s best player Michael Carrick, and they did. Later they wanted Arsenal’s best Robin van Persie. And so on.
Nowadays all clubs have grown and with TV rights being shared, it’s almost unique in European football. It has allowed that difference in power to be slowly diluted, in a way that Manchester United stopped being the all-powerful Manchester United, and became part of a group of five, six, seven very powerful clubs. They are followed by other clubs, less powerful, but not poor clubs.
United had a bit of everything happening at the same time. The exit of Alex — unique and more than just a manager — the change of powers in the Premier League and a period of instability — three managers in three years if you count Ryan Giggs. It was a period of some instability, disbelief and even distance with the fans.
SOME LESSONS IN LIFE
ONE moment I’m at Porto scoring in the last minute at Old Trafford, a team of kids coached by a kid, realising a dream. Thirteen years later, I react differently but still go home upset with a defeat, wanting to understand and analyse, wanting to play again, and win. I still have that feeling, almost like a personal revolt, when things go wrong.
But I’m still a very happy man, capable of being emotional with a special victory. In that aspect I continue to be the same but I also understand with experience that I continue to be looked at with different eyes. I was banned from entering a stadium, where my team was playing, not even with a purchased ticket. This year I was sent off for kicking a plastic bottle; another coach for pushing a ref [Arsene Wenger], nothing happens.
I started to understand there are powers you cannot fight against. This is a life lesson, an unfair lesson but nevertheless a life lesson.
A CHANGING WORLD
WHEN I was an assistant coach, one boss in particular used to tell me to go on the coach and check if any players were on the phone, I’d spot players with heads down hiding their phones, and I would return to my boss and say, no stress, all good, no one on the cell phones. I understood there are things where there is no way back.
I try to establish a few basic rules, for example a player that’s injured cannot put his diagnosis on social media before the club. But it’s impossible to say ‘If this were back in my time’. It was once impossible to take a picture inside the changing rooms after a victory.
So there are things you can’t fight against. In my case I have Instagram, as my commercial partners felt it was good. Once a month, or on the King’s birthday, I might put up a funny picture or something people who follow me might like. At my age I can also learn a lot from the kids I work with.
MY FRIEND, ALEX
WE have the same friendship we’ve always had, an SMS, a birthday or Christmas card. He wanted to leave and not return, maybe for his own comfort. I told him it made no sense, us travelling to London on a private train and Sir Alex going by car: ‘No, you come in the train.’ He’s so respectful he got a bit shy in this approach, but it has to be for us to make him feel cared for, and make him feel that in our heads there aren’t ghosts.
HOW I LIKE TO WORK
I HAVE a ‘messy’ organised table in one area where I work; watch videos, talk with a player or a coach. There is another space where I like to be alone. I have a bike [exercise bike, in front of his desk] just to fool people, it’s just there for decoration. I only pedal when I’m happy, when we win. When we don’t win, I don’t pedal.
I have a privileged view to all the pitches. I like to keep to the same structures and the same assistants, and give confidence to the people that are here for many years.
I like to teach them how I work, that doesn’t mean that it’s the correct way, but teach them how I like people to work, always giving the possibility to adapt.
A STAFF TO RELY ON
MY assistants all live in the same building, two minutes away from the hotel where I’m staying. We have dinner together, pretty much every day. Because we are without our families, it makes us partners 24 hours a day [goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro says that if Mourinho goes to an assistant’s house for dinner, he is happy help out by setting the table and cutting the cheese].
I came [to United] knowing the work ahead was difficult with some not-so-good moments. But I had a tranquillity, security and stability, so going 18 games unbeaten [in Premier League] would not send me to the moon, but in the same way five or six consecutive draws would not leave me in a difficult situation. I’m in a good
HOW LONG WILL I STAY?
THREE years [minimum], I think I will be here, I think the club understood the necessity to give stability to all levels. I believe if we do that even without massive success — which is harder in football, even more so in England — I see myself staying here, if they want me to stay. But I’m not a type of person to be at a club 10, 15 years without real success. moment, as a manager, to face the hard job I have on my hands.
THE JOURNEY HOME
LONDON is very close to Manchester by train. One hour 45 minutes and I’m home. It could also happen if there is no training in the afternoon, I can go home by train, have dinner, sleep and return next morning. Or after a match go to London. It’s not the same as being in different countries or miles away.
I am polite if I meet people [on the train]. I also ask people for a bit of co-operation. If I tell people ‘at the end’, they respect that. I do my journey relaxed; resting, reading or watching a game on an iPad or working, responding to emails.
When I get to London, I leave the train, wait for the people. Five minutes, half-a-dozen pictures, autographs and ‘bye see you soon’.
RAPPORT WITH FANS
THE song that the supporters dedicate to me, in contrast to other clubs where the chants were related to my name or Special One, or the Portuguese One, here it’s something where they are feeling good and are happy with the way I am leading them.
[Woke up this morning feeling fine, Got Man United on my mind, Jose’s got us playing the way United should, something tells me I’m into something good].
To win the League this season is obviously mission impossible, but there is this feeling, where the people is happy, where the people like it and believe in the future.