Jose's Bridge too far?

Jose's Real time represented his first career crisis

The old football maxim, Never Go Back springs to mind. Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool? Kevin Keegan at Newcastle, Pamela Anderson at Baywatch. Careers go south quickly, you know!

On the face of it, Jose's second coming looks to be a great return. He was the man who made Fergie buckle at Manchester United with two successive Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups.

But I say, Jose II of Chelsea has found "any port in a storm".

Overlooked for the jobs at Old Trafford, Manchester City, Bayern Munich – and firmly shown the "mutual consent door" at the Bernabeu, Mourinho's cultivated a reputation for itinerance in an era of continuity.

It's only Chelsea that suited Mourinho. A marriage of convenience in a less than ideal world, some say. There was no other elite club for him. 

Respected for his track record? undoubtedly. But gazed on lovingly from the lofty heights of the boardroom? Not so much.

Young Jose could do no wrong

The Special One's glister is tarnished. Without a trophy in his last season at Madrid and having fallen out with senior players and media too, this isn’t the Mourinho who stormed into the Bridge nine years ago having won the Champions League with Porto.

And one of the biggest names in football agrees.

“Mourinho will never win a prize again,” Johann Cruyff told the Sun. “I think that because of the way he acted in Madrid. He blamed everyone and everybody when something went wrong in Madrid.

“And he is playing games with people who are working there. Mourinho himself played an unbelievably negative part in his Madrid years. First he moved out general manager Jorge Valdano and later he did the same with director of football Zinedine Zidane.

“And in the end he dropped Iker Casillas, the captain of the Spanish national team.

“This behaviour does not work in football, it only works in paralysing the dressing room. That’s why it didn’t work out in the end in Madrid and that’s why I think Mourinho will not succeed any more.”

Jose was famed for his thorough tactics at Chelsea and Inter and instilled a belief in his players that it was impossible to concede goals.

But he let Robert Lewandowski score four against his Real defence in the Champions League semi this season. Young Jose wouldn’t have let that happen.

Young Jose was fired up to prove everyone wrong. But midlife Jose is coasting now and his arrival at the Bridge is a massive payday based on his decade of decoration - not his masterplan for the years ahead.

But the 50-year-old believes he has plenty of gas in the tank, "I feel the people at Chelsea love me and in life you have to look for that".

The meaningful love he needs is from Roman Abramovich. Five-and-a-half years ago, Roman lavished millions on Jose to get him out of the door. Now, after a parade of the world's greatest managers in the Stamford Bridge dugout, Jose suddenly fits the bill again.

And if he can engender a togetherness absent in Madrid, Jose may prove his detractors wrong with a very good squad that he's inherited.

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The different worlds of Fergie and The Special One

Internazionale and Manchester United's Champions League first-leg tie may not have been high on excitement - but no one can deny the quality on display.

One things for sure: the second leg in Manchester will be a more dramatic affair with the clock-ticking down and United's attacking urges to satisfy at Old Trafford. Inter will have to come out and play to quell the onslaught.

It's as much a clash on the field between these two clubs as it is in the manager's offices.

Mourinho: the suave Portuguese itinerant: Fergie: the grizzly Scottish empire builder.

And it made me think: bearing in mind the mentalities of the two, if you were a fan of a big club, would you rather have a Mourinho or a Fergie in charge?

There's no doubt that Mourinho's management style would offer few chances for United regulars such as John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher, but they are essential components of the Red Devil's incessant charge through trophy bid after trophy bid.

Even flair players like Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs take on a workmanlike demeanour under Fergie.

Of course, there's a work ethic and commitment to gameplan in every Mourinho side; sometimes at the expense of entertainment - but the players that arrive at the Giuseppe Meazza are usually players who've made their names elsewhere.
There'll always be clubs like Inter and for that matter, Real Madrid and Chelsea who are showbiz entities - ready to unveil the multi-million pound signing and replace the manager just for coming second, sometimes twice a season.

But on the other hand, there's United, AC Milan and Arsenal, who have a five-year plan and remain unwavering in the darkest periods of the barren trophy cabinet.

And I prefer these clubs: I think it's those who'll prosper in the unsure economic times ahead, starting with Fergie to advance at the expense of The Special One in this season's Champions League.

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The Professor IS the beating heart of Arsenal's Beautiful Game.

If proof were needed of a manager's profound influence on his players, the leak of Arsene Wenger's team meeting notes to the Daily Mail confirms the genius of a man, who's done as much for Arsenal as anyone has done for any club anywhere. Ever.

To gauge just how much The Professor's changed The Gunners, recall how rival fans taunted them with boring boring Arsenal - a chant now employed ironically by the home fans each time their team's won a game by halftime. Never has an old song been consigned more soundly to the dustbin than that!

Arsenal's Wengerness manifests itself so frequently in lengthy unbeaten runs, two-dozen passes leading to Goal Of The Season and sound thrashings meted out to lesser-prepared teams and their array of transient managers.

And it's all down to The Man.

But just how does The Professor keep such basic tenets of belief so fresh for his players when the challenge is just to keep winning?

The answer to that lies in his constant desire to keep adapting to the conundra set by differing opposition - by succeeding.

Players come and go, in the case of Hleb and Flamini, sometimes faster than he wants them to.

But Wenger's principles remain steadfast in the face of a changing football world - and the ultimate insurance policy against have-a-go billionaires who think they can buy glory.

There are many ways to skin a cat. Compare The Professor with Fergie with The Special One and you'll unearth a multitude of routes to a Winning Formula.

The greats are often mavericks with seemingly unorthodox methods. From Shankly's “If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.” to Cloughie's "When I disagree with a player, we talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right."

But there's a science and logic to Wenger, who's way of management has changed its face forever.

His principles on diet, fitness and a team ethic now in the public domain, are universal, for all time and should be adopted by any coach serious about success, now or in the future.

I really hope Arsenal win the league this season, not just to propel Wenger to the game's summit again, but also to show the wave of billionaire owners that football's dreams can still be made of Stars - not just Cash Cows.