Mourinho: Now you can call me the Peaceful One
HIS recent behaviour might suggest otherwise, but Jose Mourinho believes he is more ‘peaceful’ than the firebrand coach who arrived in English football in 2004.
Mourinho’s claims that Manchester United have ‘lots of enemies’ conspiring to increase the fixture burden on his players will be familiar to those who have followed his career closely.
However, the 54-year-old insists that he has matured over the years and is now able to control his emotions and switch off from football better than before.
Those who saw a manager who has already been sent off twice this season charging down the tunnel in triumph at Middlesbrough on Sunday may take a different view. So too the club officials on the receiving end of Mourinho’s fury when the team’s return journey from Chelsea was disrupted last week. But in an interview with France
Football, the Portuguese coach insists that he is very different to his public persona.
He said: ‘Mourinho the man tries to be the opposite of what the manager is. He tries to be discreet, calm. Finds the way to disconnect. I can go home and not watch a football game or think football. I can do it. At the beginning of my career, I could not. I was constantly connected 24 hours a day.
‘I had to find a form of maturity. Today, I feel good with my personality as a man. I have matured, I am more peaceful.
‘A victory no longer represents the moon, and a defeat hell. I believe that I am able to transmit this serenity to those who work with me, to my players.
‘I have the same ambitions as before. The same involvement, the same professionalism. But I’m more in control of my emotions.’
Mourinho accepts that Premier League clubs can no longer buy success, as was perhaps the case when he first joined Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea.
‘In England, clubs are so economically powerful that the market is open to all,’ he said. ‘I arrived at a club who have a great and prestigious history. But no club in England can be dominant permanently.
‘Power has divided. Everything is more difficult: buy, win, build. You have to adapt to the reality of the club.
‘Manchester United no longer have the super personalities that were the Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes or Roy Keane.
‘That’s why it was important for me to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He had — without being English, and without knowing the club’s culture — the personality and profile to be more than just a player.’
United’s fixture problems will continue following the international break after it was confirmed that the re-arranged Manchester derby will take place at the Etihad on Thursday, April 27.
They will play seven Premier League games in April in addition to the Europa League tie against Anderlecht.