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Jose Mourinho's machiavellian prince attributes have led him to immense success across Portugal, England and Italy. His trophy-laden career has seen him become one of the most defining coaches of the modern era, as an antithesis to Pep Guardiola.
The many highs of his career have seen dramatic lows, many of which are controversial and dramatic. Here, we rank five of Jose Mourinho's biggest mistakes over the course of his decorated career.
#5 Conspiracy theorist
For several instances in his career, Mourinho has found a way to shift blame past his team for their shortcomings. His criticism of referees and management has been constant and explosive, with the most infamous being accusing Barcelona of having a preference in the eyes of UEFA due to UNICEF being their shirt sponsor.
During his maiden tenure at Chelsea, Mourinho was fined €8900 for making false accusations about the referee for planning a conspiracy with Frank Rijkaard against his team. In charge of Chelsea in 2005, a controversial UEFA Champions League knockout tie against the Catalans led to Mourinho questioning referee Andreas Frisk publicly and calling into question his objectivism, leading to death threats against him and his family.
#4 Archaic tactics
"Parking the Bus" is now part of football vernacular and Jose Mourinho is largely associated with it. Introduced as a criticism, the moniker has followed Jose for the way he sets up his team to defend at all costs. At Inter Milan, his pragmatism was lauded and heralded, but across his spell in England, this has been branded "anti-football" for the little focus given to attacking football possession play. His decision to demand the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Eden Hazard to help out defensively has been unpopular and seemingly inhibited their creative talents.
In an era where attacking attractive football is the demand for entertaining supporters, Mourinho has unapologetically stuck to his style of neutralizing his opponents and catching teams on the counterattack.
At Real Madrid, he found a balance between attack and defense, as he won La Liga with a record points haul. At Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, however, his teams have struggled to break down well-disciplined opponents. While the approach wins trophies, as a neutral, his principles of play can be difficult to watch and appreciate.
#3 Defending the Premier League title in 2015-16
The second season of Mourinho's second coming at Chelsea saw them romp to the Premier League summit in 2014-15, with the likes of Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Andre Schurle playing starring roles. The following season, however, a poor transfer window which saw the arrivals of players such as Papy Djilobodji and Baba Rahman signaled their struggles for the season ahead.
Mourinho is known to have great struggles in his third season at a club, at a point where the tension and turmoil of his management starts to unravel. He was vocally critical of not just referees, but also of his players. Mourinho even went as far as falling out with club doctor Eva Carneiro for an on-field medical intervention during a draw against Swansea City.
By December 2015, Chelsea had found themselves 16th in the Premier League table, just a point above the relegation zone and some 20 points away from eventual champions Leicester City.
Roman Abramovich parted ways with Mourinho for the second time midway through the season. This time, however, it was with far more animosity and that represents a stain on his legacy.
#2 Falling out with players
Mourinho's style of man-management and motivation has made champions of great talents like Frank Lampard, John Terry, Marco Materazzi and many more who would lay their lives on the line out of loyalty to their manager.
At times, however, his pressure and motivation style has brushed players the wrong way, leading to public fallouts and broken relationships. At Real Madrid, for instance, Mourinho was critical of club legend Iker Casillas and attempted to replace the captain in the starting XI by signing Diego Lopez.
Even Sergio Ramos and compatriot Pepe were thought to have had a tense relationship with Mouriduringo in his time at Madrid. Even at Chelsea, during his second spell, the months that led up to his sacking saw widespread reports of dissatisfaction and dissent from within the ranks.
At Manchester United, Mourinho's no-nonsense style and huge expectations were seen as an attempt to reign in Paul Pogba's eccentricities, with the player often frozen out and cast out to dry in front of the media and fans when results went against them. The same pattern was repeated for Luke Shaw, with harsh post-match comments about his fitness and "football brain" that saw him ostracized from the team.
#1 Failure to promote youth
The "serial winner" Mourinho demands putting out a competitive squad every season to win trophies with little scope for errors and room for growth.
In his time at superclubs across his journey, Mourinho has given selective chances to youngsters, losing them to other clubs. The likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah were not given chances to develop into the world-class talents they eventually became.
Jose Mourinho’s fixation on getting ready-made players primed to deliver instant results has seen lots of promising youngsters fail to get regular playing time, leading them to consider their futures elsewhere.
