A couple of years ago, a few saves of mine on the much acclaimed Football Manager simulation game's version of 2012 ended up with Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge being a disaster. True, he did drag the team back to the summit of the Premier League within the first two years in charge, but then subsequently languished in the lower mid-table region – which, obviously, led to an inevitable sacking by club's owner Roman Abramovich. Now I always thought it was too farfetched; possibly a glitch in the game’s simulation-based environment. After all, how could a Mourinho-led team fail that miserably?
But after today's events, I have to give even more credit to the extents to which Football Manager as a game interprets real-life scenarios. It got me thinking: what might be the reasons behind the fall from grace for 'The Special One' and his team of champions?
Jose Mourinho’s tactical ability and attention to detail have always been rated very highly. But man-management in the long run seems to be where he falters at every club. He tends to put up a defensively solid, counter-attacking team forward the first couple of years into his reign at clubs, yet thereafter there always seem to be a high profile falling out of some sort behind the scenes. It was between the board and the manager during his first term with Chelsea and something along similar lines towards the end of his tenure at Inter, before clashes between the manager and Galacticos such as Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid. And these numerous issues rose again during this season at Chelsea.
Mourinho is a manager who enjoys taking centre stage wherever he is. He’s what you’d call a strong, dominant and, at-times, overpowering individual, who seemingly never really settles for anything he doesn’t believe in or stand for. While those traits do carry a lot of value in football management, his tendency to be somewhat stubborn and inflexible could be why his tenures haven’t made it past the three year mark smoothly so far. Nothing else could explain why the players at Chelsea, the very same ones who would’ve run through brick walls for him up until last season, came across as timid and mediocre this term. The manager wasn't able to inspire them to find the form they should've been displaying, while his tactics were rigid and predictable - possibly sucking the innovation from his flair players, bar Willian.
It seemed for a while that there was no way back for the manager and some of his players. John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic are the wrong side of 30, tired and wasted legs contributing to their dip in form, but players like Cesar Azpilicueta, Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard, Oscar and Diego Costa have all gone missing during matches at the same time. Not good for Mourinho's reputation. That, coupled with his apparent failure to blood in the club’s youngsters to the first team - despite being given the license to go long and far his career at Chelsea was concerned - spelt doom.
None of this is to say that Mourinho is a bad manager or that he has turned sour overnight; some just aren’t cut out for ‘building dynasties’ like Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger. Jose Mourinho doesn’t come from the same mould, judging by his controversial, yet high profile career.
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