By Jason
Burt
Despite his glittering array of achievements at Porto,
Chelsea and Inter Milan it would be the second campaign at Real
Madrid which would tell us just how special the ‘Special One’ is –
with indications that he would quit the Bernabéu come what
may.
That has changed. Now the signs are that Mourinho will stay in
Madrid — he has two more years on his contract after this season —
and that he is happier than ever. It’s clear he’s happy because
he’s not saying anything. There have been no outbursts, no
controversies, no grand statements. Nothing.
With all three of his former clubs in varying degrees of crisis,
he has resisted the temptation to gloat. There has been no war of
words, no provocation while the incident in August when he shoved
his finger in the eye of Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova,
after a tempestuous Super Cup tie, seems like an awful long time
ago.
Instead, Mourinho has let his team do the talking and there is a
quiet confidence that he has assembled a squad formidable enough to
not only wrestle the Spanish title away from Barcelona, but also to
take the Champions League
trophy from Pep Guardiola.
The strength of that squad is evident in the fact that Mourinho
— having won his power struggle with the now former director
general Jorge Valdano – spent €55 million (£47 million) with the
arrivals of Fabio Coentrao, Raphael Varane, Hamit Altintop and,
most excitingly, the young Turkish midfielder Nuri Sahin. Yet none
of them was in the team for last weekend’s thumping 4-1 victory
over city rivals Atlético.
Real are now three points clear of Barcelona in the league
table, with 34 points from 13 games, scoring four more goals, have
won 13 times in a row and have walked their Champions League group,
scoring 16 goals in five ties. And it is those statistics which are
the most exciting of all as they prove that Mourinho has also
adapted as a coach.
Real play far better football, a far more attractive and
attacking game, than he ever managed at his previous clubs, the
manager transforming Karim Benzema from a €35 million (£30 million)
waste to one of Europe’s best strikers.
Mourinho eventually wants to come back to England. He’s made no
secret of that and his present behaviour, plus the way he has
adapted, will not have gone unnoticed and might just be revising
opinions of his eventual suitability at, for example, Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson’s
eventual successor.