How would Jose Mourinho have been viewed as a manager if he had walked away from top-flight football in the summer of 2015, after winning a third English Premier League title with Chelsea? In 12 full seasons with Porto, Chelsea (across two spells), Internazionale of Milan and Real Madrid, Mourinho had won eight league titles. He had won the European Champions League, against the odds, with both Porto and Inter. His style, which he liked to position as the antithesis of Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka at Barcelona, didn’t always win admirers, but there was no quibbling with the results.
With each of those four teams, his win percentage was comfortably over 60. Even in Madrid, when he was unable to deliver the Decima (tenth Champions League title), the La Liga records his team set in 2011-12 (100 points and 121 goals) still stand. Special One by nickname, and certainly exceptional in terms of achievements.
But that was then. Since May 27, 2016, when he took charge at Manchester United, Mourinho has had spells at Old Trafford, with Tottenham Hotspur, and now with Roma. With United, he won 84 of his 144 games, and the Europa League in 2016-17. But though he claimed that finishing second to Guardiola’s Manchester City in 2017-18 (a whopping 19 points behind) was one of his greatest achievements, a title challenge never materialised.
By the time United let him go, replacing him with a near-novice in Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, it was clear that only Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool could push City. United were nowhere in the picture. The same scenario repeated itself at Tottenham. There was a brief surge of optimism before the mood turned ugly, and Mourinho still hasn’t gotten over the fact that he was sacked on the eve of the League Cup final against Manchester City.
At Spurs, his win percentage was 51.16. With Roma, it has dipped below 50 (54 wins from 109 matches) for the first time in his career. This week’s football headlines have been dominated by Karim Benzema and Luka Modric, twin fulcrums of Real’s legendary side, possibly moving to Saudi Arabia, and Mourinho’s antics on the sidelines of the Europa League final.
First things first. Roma were hardly the sole culprits in the final in Budapest on Wednesday night. The match against Sevilla wasn’t high on quality, and the few worthwhile moments were overshadowed by the ugliness of the behaviour from both sets of players and coaching staff. Anthony Taylor, the English referee, showed 13 yellow cards, and there will be observers that say it could easily have been more.
There were 25 minutes of time added on before the final went to penalties, and the play-acting and aggression on view was shameful. Roma had bossed the first half and led through Paolo Dybala, but had few answers when Sevilla, masters of the competition with an unprecedented seven titles, started the second half strongly.
After the game, few fans would have bothered to share the on-field highlights, so forgettable was most of the action. Instead, what has gone viral is footage of Mourinho in the cark park of the Puskas Stadium, mouthing abuse at Taylor. “Disgrace” is the only word we can mention here, because much of the diatribe, in English and Italian, was expletives.
Mourinho is certain to face a UEFA ban for his actions, but they also made you wonder whether the tantrums and histrionics were a smokescreen to cover up a far greater problem – the lack of results. Mourinho is suspended for Sunday’s game against Spezia, and only a win will guarantee Roma a place in next season’s Europa League.
In a season where Napoli have romped to the title, and the traditional powerhouses haven’t been close to their best, that just isn’t good enough. AC Milan’s title defence never got going, Inter – despite reaching the Champions League final – have lost 12 games in Serie A, and Juventus’s season is in tatters after a 10-point deduction for dodgy transfer dealings. With Atalanta not as formidable as in the past, Roma had the chance to push into the top four and the Champions League places.
In fact, after 30 matches, they were third in the league and handily placed. But a disastrous run of three defeats and four draws saw them slip well off the pace. A victory away to Inter in October and a home win against Juventus are Roma’s only successes against top sides this season. Tellingly, they lost both derbies to Lazio, who Maurizio Sarri has steered safely into the Champions League. Roma’s tally of 48 goals is by far the lowest of any club in the top 7, and it’s hard to use resources as an excuse when both Lazio and Atalanta are higher up the table.
Mourinho’s advocates will point to the Europa Conference League title last season, and the run to the Europa League final this campaign as evidence that he still has what it takes. But there was a time when Mourinho would have been embarrassed to bring up successes in Europe’s third and second-tier competitions, a time when he constantly competed at the sharp end of the Champions League.
The chances are that he will leave Roma this summer. After all, this is someone who has not even stayed four years at a club in the past. The first spell with Chelsea, three years and three months, remains his longest with any team.
There are fanciful rumours linking him with Paris Saint-Germain this summer. But after more than a decade of failed experiments with celebrity players and coaches – when you spend that kind of money, anything less than victory in the Champions League is a failure – it would be a huge shock if they went for Mourinho, whose best years now lie more than a decade in the past.