The Special One: The Dark Side of Jose Mourinho
Page 27
Mourinho was at pains to proclaim that he was blessed to have remained unscathed, despite the wear and tear of his life. But there were sharp suspicions that perhaps that was not the case. In the space of a few seconds he had claimed to be the same person and yet also a new man.
Chelsea’s meeting with Madrid in Miami had been inconvenient, and he revealed something about himself when giving a self-praising interview to ESPN. He put so much emphasis on how well he had done everything that Fernando Palomo, the interviewer, asked why someone of his importance felt such a need to highlight each achievement.
‘Because people forget,’ said Mourinho.
Chelsea’s decline in investment relative to other seasons was striking, the club spending less than at any time since 2010. They say that Willian (about €35 million) and André Schürrle (€22 million), the two most expensive signings, were made by Emenalo – or whoever is behind him – and that Mourinho’s obsession with signing Wayne Rooney never enjoyed the backing of the owner.
Abramovich bristled at the apparent jealousy Mourinho displayed every time he spoke publicly about David Moyes, manager of Manchester United, chosen to fill the position he had always chased.
‘Mou speaks to Rooney more than to his wife,’ said one agent who worked with Chelsea during the summer.
Mourinho spent many hours in August talking on the phone with Rooney, seducing him and plotting a possible transfer. But Abramovich never wanted anything to do with it. The tension between the owner and the manager came to a head in the third league match of the season when Chelsea and United faced each at Old Trafford. According to one member of the Chelsea staff, Mourinho’s line-up was a challenge to the indifference with which Abramovich had responded to his pleas to sign a striker. Chelsea played without a centre-forward until Torres came on in the 60th minute. It was reminiscent of the match that Madrid played in Almería in January 2011, when Mourinho left Benzema on the bench to prove to Pérez that he needed to sign a striker, and that if he didn’t he was ready to disregard the one that he currently had. In 2011 Madrid signed Emmanuel Adebayor. In 2013 Chelsea signed Samuel Eto’o.
A Madrid scout discovered Eto’o in Cameroon in 1996. The boy stood out for his athletic physique, despite his lack of years. At the age of 16 he was elastic, fast, strong and capable of accelerating like an adult. Having the ball at his feet seemed to only increase his agility. His zig-zag runs were unpredictable, and he was able to alter direction and yet maintain a lightning stride. In the summer of 1998, when he was promoted to the first team, he was 17 years old. He was still nearly a child but he spoke several African dialects, perfect French, he understood English, and was as fluent in Spanish as a kid from Fuenlabrada. He had an amazing grace and poise. He shared training sessions with players who had just won the Champions League final in Amsterdam against Juventus. It was an overwhelming armoury of attacking talent: Morientes, Raúl, Šuker and Mijatović.
Anyone else would have been overwhelmed by such competition for two places, but Eto’o looked at his rivals with condescension, like a prince observing the evolution of his subjects:
‘I train with them and I know I’m as good or better. I’m ready. Why can I not play for Real Madrid?’
Eto’o was tremendous. So competitive, in fact, that he moved to Barcelona and helped them destroy Madrid’s hegemony. Ten years later Pep Guardiola had to let him go because he was unable to share the same areas of the pitch with Lionel Messi. The former Barcelona coach lamented his loss for years.
‘Eto’o is the best number nine in Europe,’ he said.
Attentive enough to dig into the inscrutable corners of the souls of the men he works with, Mourinho has always had a special fondness for the jilted player. He himself was a teenage footballer to whom the gates of professionalism were closed, and he knows that frustration can be transformed into rebellion and struggle. Pride is usually a player’s most powerful engine – a player with wounded pride can become a relentless competitor.
Eto’o was anxious to vindicate himself when he joined Inter in 2009. With Mourinho, he found the perfect habitat in which to channel all his rage. He even played at right-back during the successful Champions League campaign in 2010 and forged a relationship with his coach of enduring complicity.
Abramovich was suspicious of a player who, aged 32, would still be charging €13 million net a season. But he gave in and Mourinho finally fulfilled his desire to have alongside him a man whose loyalty was beyond question.
On the day he finally lets the public see his operating manual, in the first article of his code Mourinho will state that no training method, no tactic, no vision nor strategy can ever overcome the power of loyalty.
At Stamford Bridge this complex man was reunited with the devout and united chorus that rang all around the stadium. After years of silence and remorse, he could feel his charisma once again inflame the masses. Back home, the devotion of his own people made him feel powerful, and this emotional recognition allowed him to put to one side the incurable pain of rejection.
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First published as Prepárense para perder by Ediciones B 2013
First published by HarperSport 2014
FIRST EDITION
© Diego Torres 2014
English translation © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Cover image © Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images
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