“I thought: ‘Great! I’m home”
It may seem a long time ago now but Jose Mourinho was once the darling of the football managerial world, the tanned, fresh-faced disruptor sent to kick the stuffy old guard up the arse and win trophy after trophy after trophy at the world’s top clubs until the day he retired.
His latest spell at Manchester United and indeed, before that at Chelsea and Real Madrid, were about as far removed as they could be from his earlier spells at Porto, Chelsea the first time and in particular, Inter Milan, where he was worshipped by his players, fans and the club’s owners alike.
Mourinho, who won a historic treble with the Nerazzurri built upon a fairly defensive style that relied on the unique playmaking abilities of Wesley Sneijder, always probing at the tip of a midfield diamond, has since spoken about his appreciation for Serie A as a league – and has now even described it as ‘home’.
Speaking at an event in Portimao in southern Portugal, Mourinho said of his time at Inter: “I arrived in Italy in 2008 and found a championship where the defensive aspects of the game were preferred, with super defensive models but of great organization. We wanted to become champions, but we encountered great difficulties”.
“Our first match was with Sampdoria, while the second we played against Catania. We won with an own goal in the 81st minute. Everyone was happy, apart from myself. I told Moratti, the club owner at the time,” Yes, three points … “. And he said,” Mister, we won! Three fantastic points. ” I thought, ‘Great! I’m home'”.
It makes perfect sense that Jose’s robust, counter-attacking style found its optimal environment in Italy and truth be told, his Inter side’s semi-final second-leg against Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona, a 1-0 defeat with 10-men to protect a shock 3-1 win in the first leg, was ultimately the defining moment of Mourinho’s career.
Even more than that, it summarised everything he was as a manager.
