Jim Holden Jose Mourinho
Television cameras are ubiquitous in football; they capture every incident from every angle. It is why the world’s favourite sport has been lumbered with VAR, and why people inside the game are forever on their guard.
How often do you see players and managers cup hands over their mouth so that endless replays cannot be used to lip-read their conversation? They learn, and they are taught early, that nothing is private in modern football. Think of this reality if you watch All
or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, the new TV series on Amazon Prime about life inside Spurs last season, when manager Mauricio Pochettino was sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho.
Yes, the show is fine enough entertainment, and provides some moments of insight – as with similar series about other football clubs. But the unvarnished truth behind the scenes at Spurs? You must be joking.
Mourinho, inevitably, is the star of the show, and tried to be a loyal salesman for the product when he said: “Nothing is fake, everything is real. So, so, so, so real; nobody acted for it.”
The idea is nonsense. Look, for example, at the moment in the show when a pundit on TV barks out an opinion that Mourinho is past his best as a manager. The newly-appointed Tottenham boss responds by walking towards the television screen delivering an expletive of only mild contempt.
This is an actor at work. But then Jose Mourinho is always an actor, and this is not said as criticism, but exactly the opposite. Acting is an essential part of the football manager’s job. The best are masters of theatrical performance, from the noisy, stream-of-consciousness mania of Jurgen Klopp to the brooding silence of Marcelo Bielsa sitting on his upturned green bucket.
Long ago Mourinho revealed that press conferences and media interviews were his big stage, the place where he could set the agenda and help give his players freedom to relax by taking all the burden of scrutiny onto himself.
One day he’d charm the birds from the trees, the next he’d scowl with fury about the most trivial matter. The real Mourinho? No, you never saw that; the magic would be gone if you did.
When the TV show was conceived Tottenham were rising to the heights of reaching the 2019 Champions League final. Filming began as they fell apart, and Mourinho was a surprise choice as manager given that his risk-averse football philosophy is somewhat distant from Spurs’ motto of “To Dare Is To Do.”
There is a view that his appointment was cynically pragmatic - made with the cold calculation that the fascination with his charisma and legend would be camouflage for a sporting business struggling to finance both a splendid stadium and a splendid team.
Mourinho hates that idea. He remains convinced of his talent and destiny; think of the highly theatrical rant towards the end of his time at Manchester United when he angrily demanded “respect, respect, respect”.
Tottenham happened to face Everton on the opening day of the Premier League season, providing a compelling contrast of manager with Carlo Ancelotti, who is on a similar mission to revive a major English club.
Both men have won League titles in four different countries. Both worked at Real Madrid, Chelsea and in the city of Milan. Ancelotti may be 3-2 ahead in Champions League triumphs, but Mourinho has more trophies in total.
Their styles, though, are a world apart, and Ancelotti is not concerned by the hurricane of public opinion.
Spurs lost 1-0 and immediately the vultures swooped on Mourinho, while Ancelotti was lauded. In the next game Tottenham won 5-2 at Southampton and by that time had signed superstar Gareth Bale amid a blizzard of positive headlines and clicking cameras.
It improved the mood; time will tell if it improves the team, and whether the dazzling vaudeville magic act of the Tottenham manager still has a future as resplendent as its past.
This is an actor at work. But then Jose Mourinho is always an actor, and this is not said as criticism, but exactly the opposite