As you look down list of super-clubs, many of whom Jose Mourinho has offended, name that stands out untouched among wreckage is Man United
In Bobby Robson’s 1998 autobiography, An Englishman Abroad, there are some remarkable details about the circumstances of his sacking from Sporting Lisbon in 1993, after the team lost a Uefa Cup tie in Austria. On the flight home, the Sporting president Sousa Cintra addressed the players, directors and supporters over the plane’s intercom, telling them that the defeat was a “disgrace” and that he would be taking it up with his manager on their return.Robson did not know Portuguese well enough to understand, but had a translation whispered into his ear by his loyal 30-year-old assistant who was sitting next to him, one José Mourinho. Cintra was such a self-publicist that he would drive his car ahead of the Sporting team coach when they returned home from away wins, in order to milk the applause of the waiting fans and, sure enough, the next day he sacked Robson.That was Mourinho’s first experience of a big-name manager being fired by a high-profile club, and although it is a world away from the modern Premier League’s multi-million pound settlements, some things never change. Then, as now, the end is brutal but it never ceases to surprise how quickly things move on. Robson went to Porto, taking Mourinho with him, and defeated Sporting in the 1994 Portuguese cup final.Twenty-two years on from then and three days after Mourinho’s second Chelsea defenestration, his statement from his commercial agents CAA was clear: José wants back in. But managers this big are the proverbial super-tankers of the football business. They only dock in the ports big enough to accommodate them, and there are not many of those.
As you look down the list of super-clubs, many of whom Mourinho has either burned bridges, or mortally offended, the name that stands out untouched among the wreckage is Manchester United. Already there are suggestions that his representatives are laying the groundwork for a potential move in the summer, the kind of negotiations that one supposes would take more time to agree than the average Nato treaty.Mourinho and United feels like a collision, rather than a working relationship - and the conflagration could either set the rest of the Premier League aflame or just United. In the aftermath of the David Moyes’s succession both sides had a convenient cover-story for why Mourinho did not come to Old Trafford. But what was notable, however bruised the egos may have been on both sides – Mourinho for the rejection, United for the ensuing disaster that was the 2013-2014 season – is that it never got nasty between the two parties.
In Bobby Robson’s 1998 autobiography, An Englishman Abroad, there are some remarkable details about the circumstances of his sacking from Sporting Lisbon in 1993, after the team lost a Uefa Cup tie in Austria. On the flight home, the Sporting president Sousa Cintra addressed the players, directors and supporters over the plane’s intercom, telling them that the defeat was a “disgrace” and that he would be taking it up with his manager on their return.
Robson did not know Portuguese well enough to understand, but had a translation whispered into his ear by his loyal 30-year-old assistant who was sitting next to him, one José Mourinho. Cintra was such a self-publicist that he would drive his car ahead of the Sporting team coach when they returned home from away wins, in order to milk the applause of the waiting fans and, sure enough, the next day he sacked Robson.
That was Mourinho’s first experience of a big-name manager being fired by a high-profile club, and although it is a world away from the modern Premier League’s multi-million pound settlements, some things never change. Then, as now, the end is brutal but it never ceases to surprise how quickly things move on. Robson went to Porto, taking Mourinho with him, and defeated Sporting in the 1994 Portuguese cup final.
Twenty-two years on from then and three days after Mourinho’s second Chelsea defenestration, his statement from his commercial agents CAA was clear: José wants back in. But managers this big are the proverbial super-tankers of the football business. They only dock in the ports big enough to accommodate them, and there are not many of those.
As you look down the list of super-clubs, many of whom Mourinho has either burned bridges, or mortally offended, the name that stands out untouched among the wreckage is Manchester United. Already there are suggestions that his representatives are laying the groundwork for a potential move in the summer, the kind of negotiations that one supposes would take more time to agree than the average Nato treaty.
Mourinho and United feels like a collision, rather than a working relationship - and the conflagration could either set the rest of the Premier League aflame or just United. In the aftermath of the David Moyes’s succession both sides had a convenient cover-story for why Mourinho did not come to Old Trafford. But what was notable, however bruised the egos may have been on both sides – Mourinho for the rejection, United for the ensuing disaster that was the 2013-2014 season – is that it never got nasty between the two parties.
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