Can we just put to bed some Mourinho myths.
MYTH No.1
Mourinho teams play boring unwatchable football, grinding out 1-0.
Madrid play some of the most exciting, fast and free flowing high scoring football in the world, since he arrived. Their counter attacking is phenomenal and the Madrid team is 2nd only to Barcelona. His inability to beat Barca atm doesn't change this. In ALL other matches against any opponents they score at will and crush them. In fact when he was going to Madrid, many if not most people thought he wouldn't be able to produce the type of attacking play their fans crave, not only did he produce it, but he has produced far more of it that any of the previous managers of Madrid over the last several years, inlcuding a few managers that largely had many of the same attacking players. Furthermore, the football Chelsea played under him was some of the most devastating attacking exciting football in the premier league era. Do you remember Duff and Robben flying down the wings? You remember all his bold half time subs and no hesitation to change things up? There was nothing boring on or off the field about Mourinho's time at Chelsea. Even with Inter they played some good football. Just because he like organization, is tactically and defensively sound, and can deploy defensive tactics when he needs to, doesn't mean he plays boring football, the facts simply don't support this. Yes, at Porto he played far more tactial football in Europe, but he had a relatively (in comparison to the top dogs) inexpensive squad of players who at the time were not world beaters, so he did what he had to do. Which resulted in him beating the Rags to win the CL with FC Porto.
Anyway, Mourinho's team playing boring football is a lazy, dishonest myth......
MYTH No.2
Mourinho needs a club who have lots of money to succeed.
FC Porto
His accomplishments at Porto pour water on the argument that he can't win without money. He did not spend very much money and had no top quality players besides Deco most players were average at very best but Jose still beat big clubs including Man U on his way. He certainly didn't buy his first treble (CL, Portugal league and cup) with Porto.
Inter Milan
What he achieved with Inter with the treble was managerial brilliance.
The key players of that side he brought in: Eto'o, Lucio, Sniejder, Motta & Diego Milito.
Milito - bought from Genoa as a 30 year old journeyman, good player, but never considered one of the most feared strikers in world football when bought. He (and Motta) was bought by Mourinho exchanging a bunch of fringe players inlcuding names like Robert Acquafresca, Riccardo Meggiorini, Leonardo Bonucci.......exactly, who?
Motta - Part of the Milito deal from Genoa, so was also bought as an unwanted journeyman for next two nothing (a bunch of nobodies)
Sneijder - A Real Madrid castoff, was unwanted and snapped up by Mourinho for 13mil, that's right 13mil and he became the lynchpin of their treble winning team, one of the best players at the world cup after, and one of the highest rated midfielder in the world.
Lucio - Signed as a 31 year old cast off from Bayern bought cheaply.
Eto'o - quite possibly the best and worst transfer in the history of modern top flight football. Mourinho somehow convinced Guardiola to take the disruptive Zlatan off his hands for his 30 goal, multiple assist a season, and always big game player Eto'o. Not only did he convince Guardiola to do so, but Barca paid some 40Mil to effectively downgrade.
The money got from Eto'o means Mourinho in all likelihood won the treble (knocking Barca out along the way) while operating at or near a net profit in transfers at Inter! And his signings were otherwise cheap, and unwanted by their clubs, and thus available to anyone if they wanted them, and all became key players in his success there, and otherwise he got the most out of an aging inter side.
I know facts like these (along with Porto) are inconvenient to those who say he only wins by spending ridiculous money. His moves at Inter were shrewd, affordable and ultimatley very effective.
Real Madrid
At Real he's bought Altintop, Coentrao, Sahin, Callejon, Carvalho for a combined under £50m. All the rest were already there, and were signed by Real Madrid President Floretino Perez.
Chelsea
Of course at Chelsea he spent a lot of money but that was what he was hired to do and what Abramovich wanted. His remit was to buy world class, top priced players and turn the club into Title and Trophy winning machine overnight. In the same was as we are proceeding.
