José Mourinho’s return to Real Madrid now feels like a case of when rather than if.
The 63-year-old Portuguese manager is the overwhelming favorite to succeed Álvaro Arbeloa in the hot seat at the Bernabéu next season.
Some reports claim Mourinho—currently the manager of Benfica—is already in advanced negotiations with Madrid, though he confirmed on Friday that he would not consider any offer until Sunday, when the Portuguese season ends.
Should he take the job at Madrid as expected, Mourinho will be returning to the club he managed for three seasons between 2010 and 2013, but a quote from the boss may highlight why his imminent appointment has not been unanimously praised across the fanbase.
Why Do Madrid Want Mourinho Back?
Mourinho is reported to be club president Florentino Pérez’s preferred choice, while Kylian Mbappé, too, appears to have given his endorsement for a second coming of the “Special One.”
Real Madrid is nothing if not a nostalgic entity. The case for the return of a figure as divisive as Mourinho can be made on the basis that—at least before it all fell apart—he gave Madrid some of their best times in La Liga, winning the title in 2011–12 with a record total of 100 points, ahead of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Though he never lifted Europe’s top prize at Madrid, Mourinho also has Champions League pedigree, having won the competition twice.
His personality is surely another big factor. A true Galáctico manager, Pérez will hope that the Mourinho aura can bring an out-of-control Madrid locker room to heel after a season of disharmony and warring egos.
A Manager Out of Time
That will be the hope, but is a big gamble from Pérez.
Mourinho has not won a league title, or troubled the latter stages of the Champions League, since 2015. The 63-year-old is increasingly viewed as a manager whose best years are behind him, while his most recent jobs have brought more controversy than success.
Once hailed as at the bleeding edge of tactics, Mourinho is now seen as an attritional, defense-first pragmatist. Once a great man manager, his methods of motivations in recent years feel dated.
There is a particular interview from Mourinho’s time at Manchester United back in 2017 that lays bare his inability to move with the times.
“I have had to adapt to a new world and what young players are like now,” Mourinho told France Football (via GFFN).
“I had to understand the difference between working with a boy like Frank Lampard who, at the age of 23, was already a man—who thought football, work, professionalism—and the new boys today, who at the age of 23 are kids.
“Today I call them ‘boys’ and not ‘men.’ Because I think that they are brats and that everything that surrounds them does not help them in their life nor in my work. I had to adjust to all of that.
“Ten years ago, no player had a mobile phone in the dressing room. That is no longer the case. But you have to go with it, because if you fight that you are bringing about conflict and you risk putting yourself in the stone age.”
Fractured Locker Room
In the nine years since that interview, Mourinho has only grown more distant from the modern game and the modern player.
Back in 2013, Mourinho picked fights with Iker Casillas, Mesut Özil and even Cristiano Ronaldo as the job got away from him in his final season of his first spell at Madrid.
In the intervening years, players from Manchester United, Tottenham, Roma and Fenerbahçe will all attest to Mourinho’s willingness to throw his own stars under the bus when he sees fit, while ‘harmony’ has not been one of the most appropriate words to describe any of his more recent work.
It’s hard not to see the same fate befalling Madrid’s current already deeply fractured locker room.
The temptation to slap Madrid’s “brats” into shape may be great, but the club needs a unifying leader who understands the today’s star, not someone who will simply add more fuel to the fire.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Jose Mourinho Quote That Should Worry Real Madrid Fans.
