Special One: available at all good bookshops in tablets of stone

From The Times

September 4, 2007

Matt Dickinson

Never let it be said that José Mourinho is unaware of his significance to the human race. “Like Neo in The Matrix, he is the one, the special one, the one sent for special tasks, the chosen one for a big revolution, for salvation,” a new book written in conjunction with the Chelsea manager says. Which is big talk for a man whose team have just lost away to Aston Villa.

And the comparisons do not stop at Neo, the messianic and trench-coated leader played by Keanu Reeves in the trilogy. Or even at James Bond, whom, we learn, Mourinho believes that he plays with convincing self-possession in the recent Samsung advertisements.

Historical figures including Fidel Castro, Pericles and Frederick the Great can be thrilled at their name-checks alongside the Chelsea manager. And while there is no doubting who is the star of the show, there are also bit-part roles for Moses, Roosevelt, Churchill and Hitler in this study of what makes great leaders.

The publishing world needs to raise its game if someone has not already arranged for the original Portuguese version of Leadership – The Lessons of Mourinho, to be translated into English. Anything with the Chelsea manager’s handsome features on the front cover sells by the lorryload, although it may be hard to know where to put it in Waterstone’s. Perhaps a section of its own called “hagiography”.

One chapter is entitled “Von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu and Mourinho”, which, as those who paid attention in history classes will know, lumps together a renowned Prussian military strategist, the ancient Chinese author of The Art of War and the man who once fled Stamford Bridge hidden in a kit skip.

The quote from Napoleon that begins another chapter – “the art of war consists of a great defence, well thought out and extremely discreet, followed by a rapid and audacious attack” – can be revealed as the inspiration for Chelsea’s counter-attacking 4-33.

This remarkable work started life as a university thesis by two writers – a journalist and an academic – with close ties to Mourinho and it has turned into part leadership manual, part exercise in Mourinho mythologising. Particular care appears to have been taken with a study of the phrase “The Special One”. We learn that it is not something that Mourinho just came up with at his first press conference in London, but a whole philosophy.

“The notion captures the total control of the person in charge,” we are told and Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, found out what that meant in Mourinho’s eyes. The Portuguese’s agent tells the story of how David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Zinédine Zidane and Andriy Shevchenko were offered on a plate when Mourinho arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2004.

When Mourinho turned them down, an exasperated Abramovich is said to have told his new manager: “But you don’t understand, Mr Mourinho. I’m talking about buying the biggest stars in world football.” To which Mourinho replied: “No, it’s you who doesn’t understand, Mr Abramovich. You only need one star at Chelsea – me.”

Abramovich spent much of last season trying to teach Mourinho a different lesson – that no amount of managerial talent could trump the owner’s wealth. It was a power battle that concluded in a draw (extra time being played) and Mourinho, a shrewd pragmatist despite the towering ego evident in this book, wisely resists the temptation to take any pot shots in Leadership.

Albeit unconvincingly, he talks about the signings of Michael Ballack and Shevchenko as though they were his deals rather than forced from on high and he explains why, after the early resistance, he decided to introduce established stars into the dressing-room. “Two years before, who were Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba? They were not world stars, for certain. Now where are they? They were equal with Shevchenko and Ballack, so we could unite them all in a group,” he said.

There is also a rare insight into Mourinho provided by his wife. “Some managers may not be able to switch off, but it is not like that with me,” he has said. “The game never leaves his head,” is the version (surely the accurate one) provided by Tami. “After games, we generally go out to dinner,” she revealed. “At the start of the dinner he starts by asking all about my day and how the children have been. By the middle of dinner he is talking about football and by dessert he has picked up a piece of paper and starts jotting down notes about the team and a tactical analysis of the next game. He’s always been like that and there is no changing him.”

Abramovich has forced certain compromises on to Mourinho, but most Chelsea fans like their manager the way he is and the co-authors do not lack admiration for their hero. Allowance should be made for that. Portuguese figures who have succeeded on a global stage in any walk of life – and as spectacularly as Mourinho – are not ten a penny. It is clear that all three men involved believe that Mourinho’s methods have a significance beyond football. Leadership is a manual for business people and army generals as well as the wannabe football manager. It is not quite his bible, although it does not lack self-importance.

“It is a fantastic work, it sums me up,” he writes in the foreword. “This could have been written by me.” There are nine concluding principles, although at this point the book descends into disappointing management speak. The list includes such self-evident pearls as: “choose what you like to do and work assiduously and over a long time to achieve it”; “treat every problem as unique”; and “take responsibility for your actions”.

All of these qualities must come naturally to Mourinho, who has the attributes to be one of the greatest football managers at work today, if not quite the revolutionary, the saviour or the field marshall that he evidently aspires to be.

Pub job requiring courage in pints

Middlesbrough estimate that at least 60 pubs on Teesside show their home matches live, and illegally, on Saturday afternoons. They claim the illicit screenings affect attendances far more than ticket prices. The satellite scramblers are just as prolific in other provincial cities. There have been dozens of prosecutions but the problem is still widespread, so who is man enough for the job? Volunteers required to walk into pubs heaving with drunk Newcastle, Liverpool or Middlesbrough fans with orders to “turn off that telly”.

— They postponed the league fixtures in Israel last weekend at the request of Dror Kashtan, the national team manager. With a massive match looming against England, he wanted players fresh for the trip to Wembley.

There will be no escaping the brickbats if it all goes wrong for Steve McClaren, but the England head coach will be entitled to ask if his country does everything it can for the national cause. Changing managers has not made much difference in the past 40 years.