Tension soon arose. Mourinho had opposed the appointment of Arnesen, even though the affable Dane had been linked with the emergence at PSV of such stars as Arjen Robben – by now at Chelsea through the De Visser influence and proud possessor of his first Premier League medal – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam and Ronaldo, the great Brazilian. And a year later, when Arnesen and De Visser proposed bringing into the squad Alex, the young Brazilian central defender whom Chelsea had signed from Santos on De Visser’s advice but loaned to PSV, Mourinho put his foot down and demanded Boulahrouz instead. He argued, reasonably, that although Hamburg would have to be paid £8.5 million for him, Boulahrouz offered versatility; he could challenge not only John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho in central defence but the likes of Paulo Ferreira and Ashley Cole at full-back. But Boulahrouz was to have difficulties with form and fitness and, after an unsuccessful loan to Sevilla, was sold to Stuttgart at a loss of £4.25 million. Alex, meanwhile, continued to flourish in Holland before being called to Stamford Bridge at the start of the 2007–08 season, shortly before Mourinho’s departure, and establishing himself as a worthy successor to Ricardo Carvalho alongside John Terry.
This is not to contend that Mourinho’s judgement of a player was inferior to that of Arnesen or De Visser, or vice versa – merely to imply that the tension was not always creative. Mourinho could play office politics as enthusiastically as anyone and had a typically Portuguese defensiveness about his right to manage and control recruitment to the squad as he saw fit. He correctly believed that it was the traditional way in English football. He had, after all, spent many hours discussing it with Sir Bobby Robson and had studied Ferguson with his almost obsessive attitude to control. At Chelsea, the factions never worked together as at Ferguson’s United. Instead of a brains trust under the unquestioned command of one executive, Chelsea were run by rivalry, each seeking the favour of the owner. And the factions were at a distance throughout that 2006–07 season. With Mourinho continuing to provoke controversy.
In his first season, he had reacted to a storm of UEFA-led opprobrium over the Anders Frisk affair by accusing the club of not supporting him enough and Abramovich had taken his side, throwing in a substantial pay rise. But, while domestic supremacy was maintained in Mourinho’s second season, the big prize from Abramovich’s point of view, the Champions League, remained elusive. The question of whether Mourinho was still worth the turbulence that surrounded him must have entered Abramovich’s mind, notably when Mourinho made no secret of his disdain for the signing of Shevchenko, upon whose recruitment the owner had personally insisted.
And so the third season of Mourinho began. The eighth League match was to prove one of the most controversial. It was at Reading, where Chelsea won 1–0 despite having two goalkeepers carried off on stretchers. Petr ech’s was the more serious injury: a skull fracture suffered when Stephen Hunt caught him with a knee. A furious Mourinho blamed Hunt and felt so emotional about it three days later, on the eve of a Champions League match against Barcelona, that he not only repeated his accusation against the Reading player but said he wished he could have used stronger language. Mourinho also bitterly criticised Reading FC and the local ambulance service. He claimed that ech, who was to be out of action for three months and would have to use protective headwear during matches for the rest of his career, could have died because of delays in treatment. He said thirty minutes had elapsed between the Chelsea doctor’s call for an ambulance and ech’s departure for hospital. Reading, in turn, deemed Mourinho guilty of ‘very serious factual inaccuracies’, saying that it had taken just twenty-six minutes between the call for the ambulance and ech’s arrival in – not departure for – hospital. The ambulance service also contradicted Mourinho. Some distinguished football figures, including Arsène Wenger, thought he had got it wrong about Hunt’s culpability too. It was not his finest hour. Later in the match, Carlo Cudicini, who had replaced ech, was himself taken off with concussion after being challenged in the air by Ibrahima Sonko. Mourinho’s ire was understandable in the heat of that moment. The surprise was that he nursed his wrath and carried it into the build-up to the first of two group matches with Barcelona.
Chelsea won that, through a Drogba goal, and drew 2–2 at Camp Nou thanks to the centre-forward’s late response to Gudjohnsen putting Barcelona ahead. The first knockout round brought a sentimental journey to Porto, where Shevchenko struck (he was most effective in the cups) to earn a draw. Between this and the second leg, which Chelsea won 2–1, came that turbulent Carling Cup final in Cardiff. A late brawl saw John Obi Mikel sent off by Howard Webb along with Arsenal’s Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor. Each club was fined £100,000 for failing to control its players.
Word had already begun to leak out that Abramovich and associates were becoming concerned about Chelsea’s image. Speculation about a rift with Mourinho grew and eventually Mourinho began discussing it openly with friends and colleagues. But Chelsea had taken one of the four trophies available to them and were still in contention for the other three: a splendid distraction. It was against this background that Peter Kenyon, the chief executive, sought to assure the support that Mourinho would not leave. He said: ‘José has a contract to 2010 and he wants to stay. We are not going to sack him. We support him, and given the level of speculation, where we are now is an even bigger achievement. Whatever you have read or heard, no list of candidates [to replace Mourinho] has been drawn up, no one has been offered the job. So let’s put that one to bed. Hopefully, the speculation will stop and I think it should. As far as we are all concerned, the most important thing is that it is business as usual at Chelsea and we are putting all our energy into winning the three remaining trophies.’
By early April they had closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to three points by beating Tottenham while United went down to a Rio Ferdinand own goal at Portsmouth. They overcame Valencia to reach the Champions League semi-finals – and drew Liverpool again. Joe Cole’s goal won the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Daniel Agger equalised on aggregate and the tie went to penalties. Anfield roared as Boudewijn Zenden, Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard scored. When Dirk Kuyt also netted he detonated an explosion because that was Liverpool through to the final; their goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, had saved from Arjen Robben and Geremi.
A few days later, all hope of retaining the domestic title evaporated as Mourinho’s ten men could only draw 1–1 at Arsenal (Boulahrouz had been sent off). But there was still Wembley to come: the rebuilt Wembley, with its magnificent arch. A place that soared and sparkled and seemed to have everything except a decent playing surface. Not that Chelsea minded the lifeless pitch. It seemed to suit them a lot more than United, whose close-passing game kept breaking down, and aptly a long ball led to Drogba settling matters in the 116th minute. Drogba came second in the voting for Footballer of the Year. Ronaldo won. United were top dogs again. And Mourinho, who had looked just the man to see off Sir Alex Ferguson, was himself about to bid farewell to English football.
He ended the season with mixed feelings. There was satisfaction in completing the clean sweep of English trophies, as he later told one of his favourite British journalists, Duncan Castles, in an interview for the Observer. ‘The FA Cup was so special,’ he said. ‘As as kid I grew up watching FA Cup finals at Wembley and I was becoming frustrated at not having the FA Cup yet. So to win it finally, especially after the very difficult season it had been, was very special.’ But he could still sense that the end of his time at Stamford Bridge was nigh. Indeed he considered leaving immediately after the Cup triumph over Manchester United at Wembley and later declared his decision to stay a while ‘my biggest mistake’.
Summer of discontent
Things were not getting any easier for Mourinho, on or off the field. As if Arnesen, from whom he remained distant, were not enough, into the club that summer strode Avram Grant, the former manager of the Israeli national team and a friend of Abramovich who had been director of football at Portsmouth. He took the same
job title at Chelsea. What Arnesen was called by then is hard to trace. He had begun as head of youth recruitment, nominally, but the ‘youth’ bit was soon dropped and he ended up as ‘sporting director’. The reality was that Mourinho, from Grant’s arrival in July 2007, was obliged to contend with not one but two directors of football. Even more unsettling for Mourinho – and the club’s supporters – was a feeling that Grant, who had known Abramovich personally for some years and watched the Cup final with the owner in his box at Wembley, would be conveniently in place to take over the team; it was to prove well founded. Mourinho’s coterie had the impression that Grant would be working mainly with Shevchenko at first, helping the Ukrainian to recover his best form, but they could see the bigger writing on the wall; they knew that Abramovich yearned to have a more compliant creature in charge of the team and Grant fitted the description. On top of that, there was the respect factor. Mourinho was too highly regarded a coach to have Grant, whose credentials were relatively skimpy, foisted upon him, let alone groomed as his successor.
At first there was no sign of turbulence between them. As Grant took up his new post, the Chelsea squad flew to California to take part in a tournament featuring LA Galaxy, the Major League Soccer club for which David Beckham played, and Suwon Bluewings of South Korea. Abramovich was around the squad and, as he laughed and joked with Mourinho, a casual observer might have formed the view that here was an ideal owner/coach partnership. Yet it was soon to be broken, with another leading personality at the club taking a key role in the final scenes: John Terry, of all people. Mourinho had even lost the complete confidence of the captain who, in the best of times, had been his embodiment on the field but was now about to voice his disquiet. Terry, though his public image has taken a few dents over the years – not least when he was accused of having an affair with the former partner of Wayne Bridge, late of Chelsea and an England colleague, and stripped of the England captaincy by Fabio Capello – can be a deft manipulator of his fellow man, and a determined fighter of his corner, as was shown when Capello gave him the armband back after a year. Now he could be added to the ranks of the José-sceptics.
There was also the question of style, which Peter Kenyon confirmed was essential to Abramovich’s quest – an anonymous associate of the owner was even quoted as saying they wanted to win 4–0 with the final goal being a volley from the edge of the penalty area! – and which Mourinho considered merely desirable. In any case, the coach said, in an apparent sideswipe at the quality of the squad with which he had been provided: ‘It’s all about omelettes and eggs. No eggs, no omelette. And it depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have eggs class one, class two, class three. Some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class-one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there you have a problem.’
Nor, of course, can you make an omelette without breaking eggs, and Mourinho’s relish for that part of the task was always an irritant to Abramovich according to Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph, a leading member, like Duncan Castles, of a group of journalists, part of whose job was to penetrate the labyrinth that served as Chelsea’s corridors of power. ‘For the first couple of years they got on quite well,’ said Burt, ‘but Abramovich got sick of Mourinho’s aggressive behaviour. José’s a typical Portuguese male – he does like an argument. As soon as he went to Real Madrid, he began arguing with Jorge Valdano [the Spanish club’s sporting director]. It’s just the way he is. When Chelsea were winning, it didn’t matter too much.’ And then there was the Champions League: Abramovich’s unfulfilled dream. Another season beckoned. A season in which it was so nearly to come true, and in the Russian’s capital city, with Terry centrally involved in the final drama. But no Mourinho.
Thumbs down from Terry
The 2007–08 season started pleasantly enough with a 3–2 win over Birmingham City that broke a record, previously held by Bob Paisley’s Liverpool, for consecutive home matches without defeat. Liverpool had put together a run of sixty-three between February 1978 and December 1980. This was Chelsea’s sixty-fourth defence of their fortress. All but six of those matches had been under Mourinho. And he has always liked a favourable statistic. Chelsea then beat Reading away and drew at Liverpool. They beat Portsmouth but then lost at Aston Villa and could only draw goallessly at home to Blackburn Rovers, making their record just one win in four matches since Terry returned to the side after injury. The club had almost invariably lain first or second in the League from the day Mourinho took charge, but they were fifth in September when Rosenborg, from the Norwegian city of Trondheim, arrived at the Bridge for Chelsea’s opening group match in the Champions League. This was when the Terry problem surfaced.
The background was that Mourinho had noticed a fall in Terry’s physical performance and asked the club doctor, Bryan English, if there was any medical reason. English had then mentioned the inquiry to Terry, who had reacted angrily and refused to warm up for the Rosenborg match. When Terry and the rest of the team trailed into the dressing room at half-time a goal down, Mourinho snubbed the captain. It was not an ideal atmosphere, but Shevchenko equalised to produce a result that, while it could have been worse, was hardly the stuff of which European champions are made. Afterwards, Peter Kenyon went to Terry and asked his opinion of Mourinho’s work. Terry’s answer obliged the chief executive to relay it to Abramovich. Mourinho had been fatally undermined.
Two days later, on Thursday, 20 September, it was announced that he was leaving. By mutual consent, officially. We clamoured to know what was behind that intrinsically suspicious phrase and on the Sunday it came from the horse’s mouth, via Duncan Castles, to whom Mourinho said: ‘The Chelsea statement is correct. The relationship broke down, it is true, and “mutual agreement” is true. You know me. If I was sacked, I would say I was sacked. If I had closed the door, I would say I had closed the door. The relationship broke down not because of one detail or because of something that happened at a certain moment. It broke down over a period of time.’ So he didn’t feel undermined by Grant’s arrival, even though some in his camp had been reported to have regarded the Israeli as a ‘Mossad spy’ on Abramovich’s behalf? This was after Grant had begun calling aside individual players to ask them questions such as ‘You look sad, why?’, ‘How do you feel in this position?’, ‘Is this the best place for you to play?’ or ‘Are we using your abilities well?’ Some might have called this being a director of football – albeit one appearing to intrude on Mourinho’s domain – and others might indeed have regarded it as a form of internal espionage. Surely, Castles asked, this had been like a stab in the back? ‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ Mourinho replied. ‘I don’t care. I don’t care if I was stabbed in the back. I really don’t want to spend my time and energy fretting about it.’ And what about the trouble with Terry? It had been no secret from the other players according to Claude Makelele’s autobiography, Tout Simplement, in which the midfielder wrote: ‘I met Rui [Faria], our physical trainer, and asked him if everything was OK. “No, no, Claude. The rumours are true. The coach has been fired.” I asked him why and he explained a lot of players had complained about him, notably John Terry.’ But Mourinho had no criticism to make of John Terry either. Nor is there any record of his having said a public word since against Terry, who remains close to Abramovich and has expressed a wish eventually to hold the post once occupied for forty months by José Mourinho.
First Tottenham, then England
Mourinho exuded no false modesty about the void he would leave at Stamford Bridge, saying he would not return to say goodbye to the fans: ‘Just imagine if I did – I would die in the crush out in the middle of the pitch.’ As for his own feelings: ‘I must admit I caught a tear. Just as a tear was coming out, I was catching it. I didn’t want to cry, even though I felt like it. This was the most hurtful, painful experience of my career. My worst moment at any club anywhere.’ He would be suppressing those tears all the way to the bank the next day. But first he went
home to read and hear how much English football would miss him. ‘How can I blame myself,’ he rhetorically asked Duncan Castles, ‘when the people are not happy that I’m going? The club is not happy [a questionable assertion]. The fans are not happy. My opponents are not happy. Even the referees are not happy – yes, a few of the referees have rung to say they are sad to see me go.’
One of these was Mark Halsey, who first encountered Mourinho when doing fourth-official duty for UEFA at a Champions League group match between Porto and Olympique Marseille in 2003. During Mourinho’s time in England, they became friends and in 2008, when Halsey’s wife, Michelle, was diagnosed with leukaemia, Mourinho arranged for the family to take a holiday in Portugal at his expense. The following August, when Mourinho was beginning his second season with Inter, it was announced that Halsey was suffering from lymphoma and had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his throat. Before and after his recovery and return to Premier League refereeing, Mourinho kept in touch, inviting the family to Inter and then Real Madrid matches.
Mourinho: Further Anatomy of a Winner Page 19
