It is not particularly difficult to imagine the level of resistance, and barely disguised horror in some places, if this were an appropriate time to suggest that José Mourinho should now figure prominently in the Football Association’s thinking when it comes to putting together a list of possible candidates to become the next England manager.
Plainly, the opposition would be considerable judging by the stampede of schadenfreude after the news broke that, behind the neatly trimmed hedgerows of Chelsea’s training ground, he was packing up his belongings and closing the door for the final time. “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure,” Clarence Darrow said. Outside Mourinho’s more devoted followers at Stamford Bridge, that is clearly how many have come to feel about him, with his blowtorch personality and unending need for conflict.
It is easy, too, to think there would be staff at the FA who would be horrified by the mere suggestion that Mourinho could end up wearing one of their blazers, in the same way their predecessors felt about Brian Clough when he was interviewed for the job at Lancaster Gate in December 1977. Clough began that event by gesturing to the pictures on the walls and informing the FA secretary, Ted Croker, that the new England kit – the Admiral version, brought in by Don Revie, with red and blue panels on the shoulders – was “hideous”. Croker, with classically diplomatic evasion, pointed out the FA had to move with the times. “A Rolls-Royce is always a Rolls-Royce,” Clough replied.
Clough lost out to Ron Greenwood in a decision that seemed rooted in committee-room cravenness. “It wasn’t just a football job,” Dick Wragg, vice-chairman of the selection committee, later explained. “It was a question of international diplomacy. Clough wasn’t that man. He never was, nor could be, a diplomat.” A similar thing could be said about the loosest card on the management deck, recently of Stamford Bridge.
No manager has done more in recent years to needle the FA. Nobody has had more appearances in front of the disciplinary panel or sprayed so many drops of venom that, in the worst moments, you wonder if Mourinho would be at risk of acid-poisoning should he ever bite his tongue. Against that kind of backdrop, nobody should be surprised if the FA’s decision makers choose to turn their backs on him. Or, to put it another way, bottle it.
Mourinho, in a pure football sense, has to be the outstanding candidate if Euro 2016 turns out to be Roy Hodgson’s final tournament. He has also been offered the job before, after leaving Chelsea the first time, and though he turned it down it is clearly something that does appeal to him. “What makes me like this country so much, and the football in this country, is not the FA,” he said a while back, to the question of whether his various disputes with the governing body might ever prevent him taking the job. “It’s the people. The English football fans, the English passion for the game. If, one day, I have to work for that people [the FA], I will.”
Would the FA dare? Dan Ashworth, the FA’s technical director, is in charge of the process and, first things first, there is an understanding that if England put together enough coherent performances in Euro 2016 that Hodgson’s contract will be extended to take him through to the World Cup in 2018. Hodgson has made it clear he would like to remain in charge – his deal expires at the end of next summer’s tournament – and is well regarded by the people in charge.
That, however, has not stopped the FA from looking around, in keeping with the way modern football works. Ashworth has been monitoring possible candidates for several months and the list is not restricted to Englishmen, the FA concluding that it would be acceptable to consider what it calls “nationalised” candidates, namely non-English managers who have spent a long time working in the country. Brendan Rodgers is one and Roberto Martínez another.
Until now, Mourinho was not on the list, simply because he was considered out of bounds. But now he is available and, for all the inevitable hassle, who could possibly argue he would not be an upgrade? Or that he would not give the team a better chance of winning something?
One of the jokes doing the rounds over the past few days is that Mourinho was so depressed about the way everything had unravelled at Chelsea he was trying to get his old job back at Porto, purely so he could drop Iker Casillas again.
Yet it is difficult to see which club would make him truly happy. Real Madrid? The Spanish press are full of stories about the possibility of him returning at the expense of Rafael Benítez but it was a nest of vipers last time. Mourinho seldom talks about his time in Spain with any fondness and there is not the emotional attachment he had with Chelsea or Porto or Internazionale.
Manchester United have also been mentioned and the idea would certainly appeal to Mourinho given how desperate he was for the job after Sir Alex Ferguson, a charm offensive that included the then Madrid manager making a personal request to Paddy Crerand – someone he had never met or spoken to before – to make a guest appearance on the MUTV chat show that the 1968 European Cup winner hosts.
Mourinho was given a half-hour slot but it did him no good because of Ferguson’s singular and wholly misplaced belief that David Moyes would be a better fit. United are still suffering the consequences and have already been made aware, such is the football world, that Mourinho wants a way back next summer.
Yet the clear information from Old Trafford, only two weeks ago, was that they were not in the market for a new manager. They were absolutely adamant and seemed wholly unmoved by the allegation that Louis van Gaal had become to football what Cliff Thorburn was to snooker. Van Gaal’s position has clearly been weakened since then by the damaging results against Wolfsburg, Bournemouth and then on Saturday Norwich and, yes, his job is bound to become vulnerable if one of the old superpowers continues to drift.
Otherwise, there is not a great deal of choice for Mourinho at the higher end of the sport.. “Every manager of a top club will be looking over their shoulder now,” Tony Pulis predicted on Friday. Yet Barcelona would never touch Mourinho. Bayern Munich already appear to have lined up Carlo Ancelotti to replace Guardiola and City are now run by the Barcelona executives who have interviewed, and rejected, Mourinho once before.
Paris Saint-Germain are arranging a new contract for Laurent Blanc and there is no chance Arsenal would look Mourinho’s way if Arsène Wenger decided this should be his last season at the club.
All of which brings us back to the question about what the FA’s executives think of Mourinho and whether they consider the last few days at Chelsea might affect them, too, before the year when we clock up the 50th anniversary of England’s World Cup win.
Do they take the nice, safe option, recall Mourinho’s less appealing traits and conclude that they should stand for something different? Or do they take the angle that if one of the world’s most successful managers is available, lives in London and wants to work in England, it could be worth investigating?
It comes down to a level of ambition – or nerve – but it takes only a cursory look at Mourinho’s achievements, including eight league titles and two European Cups, to be reminded that the good does outweigh the bad, even if it can feel like a close-run thing sometimes.
Watford join the wonder workers
Amid all the acclaim for Leicester City, let’s not overlook the fact there is another unexpected success story taking place a little further down the Premier League. Watford were another club that featured prominently when it came to identifying the teams who were likely to fall through the trapdoor come the end of the season and, like Leicester, they have shown great valour in the way they have dismantled the theory.
The difference is they are in their first season back in the top division whereas Leicester, barring a 5-3 win against Manchester United, had terrible problems acclimatising to the higher level when they came up from the Championship last season. After 16 games Leicester had two wins and 10 points and were propping up the rest of the league; Watford have seven victories, 25 points, began the weekend in seventh position and have a better defensive record than Manchester City, Chelsea and Leicester.
Quique Sánchez Flores was their fifth manager in a year when he was appointed in June and when he said he wanted to achieve something special in his first season it was easy to be sceptical given the way his squad was hastily put together. As it is, the Spaniard has set about his work with a quiet dignity and expertise that gives Watford the look of a side that will survive with something to spare.
These are still relatively early days, but if Claudio Ranieri has been the exceptional manager this season, and Jamie Vardy the outstanding player, Sánchez Flores cannot be far behind, along with the team’s leading scorer, Odion Ighalo, with 10 goals already.
Bogus pictures if we’re not mistaken
That bogus photograph of José Mourinho apparently leaving Chelsea’s training ground with a hood pulled over his face – now revealed as the club’s camera-shy player-liaison officer, Kevin Campello – reminds me of an entirely different case of mistaken identity when Sven-Goran Eriksson was managing Manchester City.
Eriksson chose not to buy a house during his time in Manchester and moved into the presidential suite of the Radisson Hotel, where, convivial chap that he is, he spent many a night clinking wine glasses at the various functions downstairs.
One series of photographs showed him drinking with an attractive younger lady, his hand getting progressively lower down her back. Who is the mystery lady, one of the red-tops asked? His daughter, it turned out. It says a lot for Eriksson that he was still smiling at the following day’s press conference.
