CARRAGHER Fear of failure is Mourinho’s driving force
ARSENE WENGER had a point, even if Jose Mourinho didn’t appreciate it. Arsenal’s manager lit a fuse when, in February 2014, he suggested his Chelsea counterpart had a ‘fear of failure’.
Inevitably, there was an explosion, prompting Mourinho to label Wenger a ‘specialist in failure’. The feud between the pair continues to simmer. What I can’t understand, though, is why Mourinho — who is three points away from lifting the Barclays Premier League trophy — took such offence.
Fearing failure isn’t a sign of weakness. It is a source of motivation. It keeps you on the edge. Mourinho isn’t afraid of losing a game of football but he doesn’t want to consider a day when his teams are not pushing for the honours that everyone wants.
Sir Alex Ferguson was the same. I remember one day at Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground, chatting with Brendan Rodgers. He told me how Ferguson had sent him a letter after Swansea had won promotion to the Premier League, which contained a significant line: never lose that fear.
The conversation took place in the season that turned out to be Ferguson’s last as Manchester United manager. Some in his position would have relaxed but I found it incredible, after all he had achieved, that the anxiety of not being a winner stalked him.
It was interesting to learn, too, that AP McCoy used fear as his motivation for being champion jockey 20 years on the run and he retired because he worried about not being able to continuing achieving his ambitions.
It was something I could associate with. The feats I achieved as a player could not match what Mourinho and Ferguson have done as managers but that same fear of failure was something I carried throughout my career.
Frequently I’d be concerned that the arrival of a new signing would jeopardise my place in the team; if I didn’t play well, it would prey on my mind for days. I couldn’t ever relax in training or switch off after games but that intensity allowed me to stay at Liverpool for as long as I did.
Intensity is a key word with Mourinho. I’m currently reading Alastair Campbell’s latest book Winners and there is a chapter in which he interviews the Portuguese manager. A lot of the conversation is about tactics and strategy but there are also deep insights into his personality.
‘Even if we win a title, I’m never happy,’ Mourinho tells him. In a conversation with Campbell, Michael Emenalo — Chelsea’s technical director — says: ‘Jose always wants more. That is how he is.’
There is no settling. If Mourinho walked away from football after tomorrow’s game with Crystal Palace, his name could never be scrubbed from the history books. His teams may not be remembered with the same affection as others but his achievements have been magnificent.
Yet he wants to be remembered as the most successful coach of all time and when he lifts the Premier League title once again, it will be the 22nd trophy of his brilliant career. That is a staggering number but he will be relentless in his ambition to keep increasing that figure. We live in an age where managers will talk about five-year plans and long-term projects but that is not Mourinho. He wants to win now and puts himself under massive pressure to do so. It struck me after Chelsea won the Capital One Cup exactly what winning means to Mourinho. In the grand scheme of things, it couldn’t be compared to leading Porto and Inter Milan to the Champions League or winning La Liga with Real Madrid but that day showed what he is about.
Mourinho spoke of his ‘ embarrassment’ that he had gone two seasons without silverware — the wait, he said, felt like 20 years — and how he ‘felt like a kid’, such was his joy after the 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
In some ways, Tottenham have been the key team in Chelsea’s campaign. Something definitely changed after Mourinho’s side lost 5-3 at White Hart Lane on January 1, a night when Manchester City drew level with them at the top of the table.
Was that the night he felt ‘ the fear’? Chelsea had been open to that point but, since then, they have played 14 games and kept seven clean sheets in the Premier League, getting back to defensive standards we expect of a Mourinho team.
But have they been boring? No. It intrigues me how Mourinho sets Chelsea up to play in big games. In total, he has faced Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool 30 times since he has managed in England but only conceded two goals in one match against them once.
His first thought, undoubtedly, is how to nullify the opposition — ‘finals are for winning, not for playing’, he said at Wembley on March 1 — and, as I have said before here, that approach means he may never be loved by a wider audience.
BUT he is a coach that constantly adapts. The way he sets his teams up depends on the opposition and he once said that it would be ‘stupid’ not to play in a certain way if knew that he could exploit another team’s weakness. If you asked him what his philosophy was, he would tell you it was to win.
And that is what Chelsea will do this season. Winning his third Premier League title has been the main ambition and, who knows, given how impatient Roman Abramovich can be, a failure to deliver that target might have ended with him being sacked.
The reality, however, is Chelsea have been in full control of this race since August. For the last three or four weeks, they have had the prize in the bag but you can see what influence Mourinho has had on his players from the way they have been reacting at the end of games.
It shows not only how much they want it but how Mourinho has never let them think the job is done. Once this trophy is won, it will be on to the next one. That will always be the Mourinho way.