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Ruthless, unapologetic and successful is how one can describe Jose Mourinho. Jose is regarded as one of the best managers in world football, but he does bring his fair share of problems. He has a long history of disputes with players, managers and referees.
Jose can be very demanding from his players at times. He even uses criticism as a means to motivate them to do better. Some players benefit from this and end up improving tremendously under him. Others falter under the pressure and criticism, ending up losing their spot in the team.
With Jose, there is always the good, the bad and the boring. Often accused of being too defensive, Jose is not the most admired coach in world football when it comes to style of play. Having said that, he knows what it takes to win. Winning the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan is no small feat.
Here we list 3 players who clashed with Jose Mourinho down the years.
#1 Iker Casillas
"It didn't sit well with him [Mourinho] that I spoke with someone from Barcelona to ease the tension in the national team," Casillas told Spanish Broadcaster RTVE.
Casillas is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of Real Madrid and Spain. In his prime he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Unfortunately, he did not have a good professional relationship with Jose Mourinho.
The tension between Jose and Casillas came to a high in 2011 after El Clasico. This was the match in which Jose poked the Barcelona manager, Tito Vilanova in the eye. Casillas decided to call Barcelona midfielder Xavi after the match to calm the situation. This did not go well with Mourinho as he saw this as a betrayal.
Things did not improve once Mourinho brought in Diego Lopez. Casillas was dropped for Lopez. While this did not go well with the fans, Diego Lopez was in his prime and was superb for Real Madrid in that period.
It is fair to say the relationship between Casillas and Mourinho is stained forever.
#2 Pepe
Pepe defended Iker Casillas when he decided to call Xavi to calm things down. Pepe called for more respect from Mourinho, and labelled Mourinho's comments as ‘not adequate’. This did not sit well with Jose Mourinho.
This coincided with Pepe losing his place in the team to Raphael Varane. As you can expect, this did not sit well with Pepe. While this seems biased on Mourinho's part, Pepe was not getting any better, and Varane was a young prospect with a lot of potential.
Jose Mourinho eventually hit back at Pepe when he stated:
"Pepe has a problem, and his name is Raphael Varane" (BBC).
#3 William Gallas
William Gallas did not like the fact that his number 13 shirt was given to Michael Ballack while he was still at the club. This led to Gallas asking to be transferred from Chelsea. He refused to travel to the United States for pre-season, and this was not taken well by Jose Mourinho.
Sky Sources reports a statement made by Chelsea after Gallas left, it accuses Gallas of threatening to score own goals if he was not let go. Gallas went on to deny the own goal threats. Eventually, Gallas left for Arsenal and the tension subsided.
In an interview with Four Four Two Magazine, Gallas went on to talk about his relationship with Jose Mourinho. He said:
“In retrospect, I think that we did not understand each other. It’s a great pity, as we had the same common goal - to win trophies".
