Players often have the sensational skill and will normally take the plaudits from the press for a major success.
However, to have a world class player and a team that is a winning success, you need to have a tactical genius, an approachable man-manger and a controlling influence within the dressing room.
There have been some fantastic managers in the last 50 years and Total Football’s Simon Wright has chosen his top ten.
We are now into the top five and the next manager featured really needs no introduction. It is the 'Special One,' Jose Mourinho.
5. Jose Mourinho
TEAMS MANAGED: Benfica (2000), Uniao de Leiria (2001-2002), FC Porto (2002-2004), Chelsea (2004-2007), Inter Milan (2008-2010), Real Madrid (2010-PRESENT)
HONOURS: UEFA Champions League 2004, 2010, La Liga 2012, FA Premier League 2005, 2006, Serie A 2009, 2010, UEFA Cup 2003, FA Cup 2007, Copa del Rey 2011, Portuguese League 2003, 2004, Coppa Italia 2010, Carling Cup 2005, 2007, Supercoppa Italiana 2008, FA Community Shield 2005, Taca de Portugal 2003
In today’s football manager world, it would be a boring place without the colourful, charismatic and flamboyant presence that is Jose Mourinho.
Wherever he has gone, he has won masses of silverware and turned all his clubs into great, almost unbeatable sides.
He took FC Porto to European glory, dominated the English game with Chelsea, got reunited with his no.1 trophy at Inter and now is looking to rule the Spanish league with Real Madrid.
The honours speak for themselves. Jose is the manager’s version of Marmite. You either love him or hate him.
Arrogant he might be but he is passionate, likes to speak his mind and is a winner. As he said back in 2004, ‘I think I am the Special One.’
Mourinho started his coaching journey as an interpretator for the great Sir Bobby Robson, when the Englishman was coaching in Portugal with Sporting Lisbon.
He would work with Robson at FC Porto and followed him to Barcelona, picking up useful tactical skills and man-management abilities along the way.
When Robson departed the Nou Camp in 1998, he believed Mourinho would turn into a great coach and he certainly wasn’t wrong.
After a spell as Louis van Gaal’s assistant with the Catalans, he had brief managerial beginnings with Benfica and Uniao de Leiria.
However, it was a return to Porto in 2002 that really made him into a special manager.
A reliable team at Porto
Having taken over the struggling Portuguese side in mid-season, he guided them to third place and promised they would become champions in 2002-03.
He didn’t disappoint, winning the championship by 11 points from Benfica, losing just two games all season.
He formed a reliable team of winners, including the likes of Costinha, Maniche, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and experienced goalkeeper Vitor Baia.
It was the treble in his first full season with Porto, as they won the Portuguese Cup and the UEFA Cup, defeating Celtic in an outstanding final in Seville, 3-2 after extra-time.
A year later, more greatness followed. Another league title in Portugal and the start of an incredible undefeated home record as manager which lasted for the best part of a decade!
Benfica did defeat Porto in the Portuguese Cup final but Mourinho had one more aim left with his current employers, to win the Champions League.
He did it by knocking out Manchester United and Lyon on the way to the final, before his side swept aside AS Monaco 3-0 in the Gelsenkirchen showpiece.
Mourinho knew he was leaving and was instantly linked with the Liverpool job, saying this about Chelsea who had been courting his services.
“Liverpool is a team that interests everyone and Chelsea does not interest me so much, because it is a new project with lots of money invested in it.
“I think it is a project which, if the club fail to win everything, then Abramovich could retire and take the money out of the club. It’s an uncertain project.”
Blue Revolution
Weeks later, Mourinho took the Chelsea job as Liverpool opted for UEFA Cup winning coach Rafa Benitez.
In his first press conference at Stamford Bridge, he said: “We have top players and in my view, a top manager. Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion. I think I’m the special one.”
Mourinho brought his backroom staff from Porto and spent big, acquiring the services of midfielder Tiago, goalkeeper Petr Cech, Dutchman Arjen Robben and for a club record £24m, Didier Drogba from Marseille.
He promised the fans the Premier League title and he didn’t disappoint. Along the way, they rewrote the Premier League history books.
Chelsea only conceded 15 league goals in 38 matches, stayed unbeaten at home all season, amassing 95 points which was a new record and strolled to their first league title in 50 years.
He also won the Carling Cup, following a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Liverpool in the final but his grip on the Champions League was loosened by the Reds, with Benitez’s side getting the better of them in the semi-finals.
In 2005-06, there was Champions League defeat to Barcelona and an FA Cup semi-final loss to Liverpool but no doubts over the league title again.
Chelsea went top at the end of August, winning the league by eight points from Manchester United but had leads as big as 15 for the majority of the campaign.
Speculation started to rise about Jose’s future at Stamford Bridge during 2006-07, heightened by the owner’s desperation to sign Andriy Shevchenko.
Shevchenko cost the West Londoners a whopping £30m in 2006 but only scored four league goals in his first season and was dropped at the season’s end by Mourinho much to Abramovich’s disapproval.
The end at Stamford Bridge
Manchester United showed their class and wrestled the title away from Chelsea but the Blues did regain the Carling Cup, as a Drogba double beat Arsenal in Cardiff.
Then he scored an extra-time winner in a forgettable FA Cup final at the new Wembley, as Mourinho’s side denied the Red Devils of a league and cup double.
After a sluggish start to the 2007-08 campaign, Jose Mourinho left Chelsea in the early hours of 20 September 2007 by mutual consent.
He left as the most successful manager in the club’s history, having won six trophies in three years and remained unbeaten at home.
After nine months out of the game, Jose moved into Serie A succeeding Roberto Mancini as Inter Milan head coach.
He won the Italian league by ten points and the Italian Super Cup in his first season but it was a work in progress mission at Inter, as shown by their meek defeat to Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League.
He rebuilt the squad in the summer of 2009, getting rid of Adriano, Julio Cruz and Hernan Crespo and bringing in Diego Milito, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o.
All proved to be fantastic decisions, as Inter dominated the European club scene in 2009-10.
They won the treble of Serie A title, the Coppa Italia and in Madrid, the Champions League final.
Both Chelsea and Barcelona were dismissed in the knockout rounds and two Milito strikes in the final accounted for Bayern Munich.
He had his favourite trophy back and it was job done at Inter Milan. Next on the agenda was to make Real Madrid great again.
A new mission in Madrid
He signed a four-year deal at the Bernabeu in June 2010, becoming the club’s 11th coach in seven years.
New acquisitions included Angel di Maria and German World Cup stars, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil.
Like at Inter, it would take time for Mourinho to settle into new surroundings and this was highlighted by an embarrassing 5-0 away defeat to Barcelona in November 2010.
He won the Copa del Rey in his first season, beating Barcelona in the final although his old side would overpower Madrid in both La Liga and the semi-finals of the Champions League.
It went more to plan in 2011-12, despite intense speculation about his future with the club.
Bayern Munich did dump Mourinho’s Madrid out of the Champions League semi-finals on penalties but they won La Liga after a four year drought.
They won 32 games in the domestic season, recorded 100 points, scored a staggering 121 goals and ended with a goal difference of +89.
In the summer, Mourinho signed a new deal to stay at Real Madrid until 2016 and with victory in the Spanish Super Cup already this season, Real have become one of Europe’s senior heavyweights again.
Jose Mourinho might not endear himself to everyone and does a lot of talking but he is a winner and a multiple champion, so he deserves to have his say on most things in global football.
Always up for a sound bite, I’ll leave this profile with ten of my favourite quotes from the managerial life of Jose Mourinho.
Ten favourite Jose Mourinho quotes
"Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one."
"They just defend, defend, defend and as we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal."
"For me, pressure is bird flu. I'm feeling a lot of pressure with the problem in Scotland. It's not fun and I'm more scared of it than football."
“When I saw Rijkaard entering the referee's dressing room I couldn't believe it. When Didier Drogba was sent off, I wasn't surprised."
"I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea." (speaking about Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger)
"I am Jose Mourinho and I don't change. I arrive with all my qualities and my defects."
“Ronaldo is a good player but he is certainly not the best. He deserved the Golden Ball award because his team won the Champions League and the Premier League. But, for me, Ibrahimovic is the best."
“If Roman Abramovich helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt!”
“I told (Adrian) Mutu, you are already a rich boy, you won a lot of money, you are still in a big contract. So, no problem with your future about money, no problem about prestige in your home country. When you go back to Romania you will be one of the kings. But five years after you leave football nobody remembers you. Only if you do big things. This is what makes history.”
“That was not a football score, it was a hockey score…in training I often play matches of three against three and when the score reaches 5-4 I send the players back to the dressing room, because they are not defending properly” – on a Premier League match between Tottenham and Arsenal in November 2004.
By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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