Mourinho begins life as Chelsea manager for the second time on Saturday when he takes charge against Hull City, seven years after the 'Special One' left Stamford Bridge. In extracts from the book The Manager he reveals how he achieved success the first time around and why he returned to England.
On the art of confrontation
Jose Mourinho has spoken of having mellowed ahead of his second stint at Chelsea, which begins on Sunday. Here he explains why he felt the need to adopt a more confrontational approach for his first period in charge.
Chelsea in 2004 was a moment in my career where the expectations were right for myself, and for that group of players. I think we met each other at the right time in our careers.
I was coming from Porto – European champions and so on – but the English culture demands more. It demands you are successful here – not there, here!
This is the country of football . They say: ‘OK, you won the Champions League: you can have it. But come in and do it again now here.’
I think the Chelsea players at the time needed a leadership to fit their motivation and fit their ambition every day. I cannot be happy by winning two matches, three matches. No – we needed more and more and more.
I think that, as a manager, you are always a leader, but sometimes you can be a different kind of leader.
There I was a confrontational leader because I felt that was what the team needed at the time.
The guys desperately needed to make the jump from potential to reality, and I think they needed the kind of leader I was.
I called it confrontational leadership: confrontation not just inside, but also outside the group. We were not afraid to say we are the best, we were not afraid to say we are going to win, or we are special, we are going to prove that we are – so it was perfect.
That season [2004-05] was a season for them to say, ‘We are the best in this country’, and it was the season for me to say: ‘I’m not just very good in Portugal, I’m also very good here.’ So it was like an explosion of motivation on both sides.
I remember saying clearly to Frank Lampard: “You are one of the best players in the world, but nobody knows.”
In one of the seasons Frank was a finalist in what is now the Ballon d’Or, and I think he didn’t win because he was not a European champion.
Between 2004 and 2007 he became, for sure, one of the best players in the world. So we motivate people also with individual challenges, and for him, for sure, that was a challenge we put there and he understood and he was ready for it.
If Frank’s 2012 Champions League win had come before, he would have been voted the best.
Chelsea were stronger in 2004 and 2008 – but that is the magic of football.
It was a brilliant phase. I learnt so much with them, and I think they learnt a lot with me too. My big learning was the main idea of motivating the group [through confrontation].
At Inter it was about the kind of mistake many leaders make, but which I didn’t: older players must not feel that you are there to end their careers.
They must feel they have a lot to give until the last moment they are there. Then, probably the last period of their career will give them what the best years of their career didn’t give to them.
Why not? The problem comes when people are not able to make the oldest players feel that they are very important. That is why I say you have to understand everything about them: frustrations, ambitions, doubts.
You have to understand a lot and work with them.
On how to handle talent
Mourinho has managed some of the game’s biggest talents, from Didier Drogba and John Terry to Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He reveals his approach to handling their sometimes difficult personalities.
I have never had a problem with working with that special talent – never.
And I never understood when people say that it is a problem, or you can have a special talent but not two or three or four. I want 11 special talents in my team!
Maybe I was lucky, maybe I wasn’t, but it was never a problem. The toughest thing is when you don’t have talent in your squad.
In terms of mentality, I’m not much older than the players – I think I have the ability to put myself at their level. I think it is important to understand them.
The more you understand them the more you can lead them. I never liked the kind of leadership where the boys say: ‘He’s my leader, I have to respect him.’ I prefer them to say: ‘I respect him and he’s my leader.’
It is a completely different thing. They can say: ‘I do that because he tells me to do that and I have to.’ I prefer them to say: ‘I believe in him so much, and trust him so much that everything he says I want to do!’
I prefer much more this kind of empathy.
Of course, many people say we cannot be friends with the players. I say exactly the opposite.
If you are not friends with the players you do not reach the maximum potential of that group.
You have to be friends with them, but they have to understand that between friends the answer is never the answer they are expecting, or the answer they want to hear. They have to understand that.
A story from the past. I think there are two ways of travelling with the players in a plane: you travel in business class where everybody goes in business class, or if there is not space for everybody then the players go in business class and you go in economy class with your staff.
If I go in business it’s because they go. If there is no space for everybody else, I go behind them.
Some time ago a coach arrived in a club and they travelled to their pre-season and the first thing they did was to travel executive for the manager and the staff with the players in economy. I was thinking ‘bad start’ and I was not wrong.
One of the things you must remember as a leader is your people are more important than you.
For any new player arriving, the integration is about getting him to understand we are organised in every aspect and he has to follow us – times, tactics, routines.
He has to do it, he has to adapt. We will not change to him – he has to change.
So it is about making him feel and understand that he is a special talent, yes – but before him we were a special team, and this team wants to improve and needs him in order to improve.
The pull of the Premier League
Finally, Mourinho explains why – after a six-year absence – he felt compelled to return to England.
I feel very fortunate as a coach and as a manager because I have now worked in four countries – Spain, Italy, England and Portugal.
The good thing is to have the chance to compare the different emotions and the experiences of different competitions.
We can always discuss the qualities of the football in the different countries, but not about the emotions of the game or the atmosphere.
The atmosphere, the intensity and the emotion in England is something you cannot compare with other countries and for somebody that is really in love with the game, as I am, this is the place where you enjoy it the most.
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