The special one

Sir Alex Ferguson has won more trophies than any other manager in English football, and if anybody doubted whether he still has the spark, they need only refer to last season’s major trophies. However, in the next round of the Champions’ League his team has been drawn against Inter Milan, managed by none other than “The Special One”.

José Mourinho needs no introduction to football fans, although few of those fans appear to be interested in who the man really is. He has reached the peak of the game at a speed that none have matched and yet he still seems to have to justify his every word and deed.

His detractors would argue that he only has himself to blame for the criticism, and they use his nickname as an example. On arriving at Chelsea he announced to the delighted press

"Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one".

Of course the gentlemen of the press were over the moon that somebody as newsworthy as Mourinho had finally arrived in England, but they have done just as much as anybody to destroy his reputation.

So if we cut through all the negative press this coach has received, is it possible to judge how special he is?

AN IMPRESSIVE CV

On a personal level, Mourinho has a diploma in sports science and has obviously achieved all the necessary coaching badges to take him to the highest level of the game. He also speaks a number of languages, including Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian and French.

In terms of football, his palmarés is even more impressive. He has only been a professional manager since 2000, and although he has not even been managing all that time (around seven years in total) he has found time to win four domestic leagues, three major domestic cups, the UEFA Cup and the Champions’ League.

Statistically (according to the IFFHS) he was considered the best manager in the world for two consecutive years. He has only ever lost one league game at home with any team and his teams are on a run of over one hundred home games without defeat. And he is only the second manager ever to win the UEFA Cup and Champions’ League/European Cup in consecutive years.

IT’S ALL RELATIVE

As with everything in life, a person’s achievements are relative. Nobody’s should be belittled simply because there is someone “better”, of course, so if one person speaks five languages why should they care if someone else speaks six? However, if we compare Mourinho’s achievements to those of people around him, do they still withstand scrutiny?

I am not suggesting for one moment that this was Mourinho’s intention, but seeing as he made the comment about being “special” on arriving in England, I would like to use the achievements of the people who inhabit the world of English football as a yardstick.

· COACHES

First, the coaches. Only Bob Paisley has won the UEFA and European Cups in consecutive seasons, nobody else. No other English manager comes near Mourinho. (Sit down, Johnny English, Sir Alex is Scottish – Scotland is a different country. So is every other place your government and army have annexed.) Indeed, English managers are unfortunately often people like Mike Newell or Sam Allardyce, misogynist or (allegedly) dishonest.

· FANS

What about the fans? Marseille 1998, Charleroi 2000, Bratislava 2002, Albufeira 2004, Stuttgart 2006 – the evidence is plain. Admittedly there are no available figures on how many English football fans speak five languages, have finished higher education or have reached the absolute peak of their field in less than a decade. There is, of course, unlimited evidence of monosyllabic thuggery.

· PUNDITS

Should we compare Mourinho to football pundits? They are a special breed of television presenters who are experts at spouting insipid, clichéd rubbish in droning voices while offering absolutely no analysis. Irish residents will have had the chance to compare RTÉ’s pundits to the English riff-raff, and will have seen what real analysis is all about. A special mention here should go to that most English of (alleged) Scotsmen, Alan Hansen.

· PLAYERS

Apart from the fans, of course, the main group of people involved in football are the players themselves. England boasts such iconic individuals as Luke McCormick, Joey Barton, Lee Hughes, Steven Gerrard (allegedly), Glen Johnson, Ben May, Jordan Robertson (again, allegedly), Jermaine Pennant and Marlon King. Again, there are no figures available as to how many languages the average English footballer speaks or whether he has finished higher education, but there is ample evidence of violence and extremely arrogant anti-social behaviour sometimes ending in death.

· HACKS

And last but not least we have the hacks themselves, the journalists who believe they report on football in order to satisfy the fans’ desire for more news, but in reality insist the fans be interested in a footballer’s every move in order to keep the hack in a job. Far from speaking five languages, journalists at The Times – a top-end newspaper, allegedly - cannot spell and have no idea of grammar, producing unreadable articles every Sunday. (At least the tabloids come up with memorable headlines, not least the ones announcing Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s victory over Celtic or Manchester United’s last-minute signing of Berbatov.)

And then we have perhaps the worst offender, the international laughing-stock that is the BBC, whose sporting forum encourages swearing, personal insults, racism and potentially dangerous taunting on a daily basis (in spite of their apparently irrelevant “House Rules”) while refusing to allow well-written and balanced articles on serious issues within the sport.

· THE AGENTS

Shall we just leave the agents out of this?

PAINT IT BLACK

Perhaps this is painting English football with too much black. Admittedly there are many footballers and managers who do a mountain of unpublicised work for the less fortunate members of society, although as Mourinho is also on that list, in this attempt at balancing things the gesture is cancelled out.

It is also understandable that the industry insists on complete dedication to the cause, but that same industry should encourage the players to study and learn more about the world around them rather than encouraging them to reach the highest level of some computer game. Football can also be considered akin to boxing in that it is an opportunity for kids who have not had exactly that, an opportunity. However, again the football world should nurture the players as opposed to seeing them simply as a way of making money.

In terms of the fans, their passion is a necessary part of the football experience; however, knives and racist chants are not.

BACK TO THE START

Whether this article has been too harsh on English football or not, based on all this evidence it is painfully obvious that in this sort of company, Mourinho is without any doubt a special one.

One question remains: was he arrogant to say as much? Well, how arrogant was this statement compared to enlisting the help of five friends to beat up a DJ who wouldn’t change a song (allegedly)? And how arrogant was it compared to driving with such disregard for anyone else that two children were smashed to death?

They were only two cases out of many people, but Mourinho really is one of a kind.