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Following an upturn in fortunes upon Santiago Solari’s appointment, Real Madrid’s season has once more descended into chaos, following disastrous results over the last week. This all but guarantees that Los Blancos would finish the season trophyless.
The 4-1 defeat to Ajax at the Bernabeu confirmed that Real Madrid were eliminated from the round-of-16 stage for the first time since 2009 and that match sealed Solari’s fate as Real Madrid coach.
The 42-year-old was made Real’s permanent manager last November following his impressive performance while he had the job on a temporary basis. However, he is now surely not going to be on the Bernabeu bench when next season comes around, with Perez certain to start looking for replacements.
Many high profile coaches have been bandied around as potential replacements for Solari, with names like Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochetino among the names being speculated. In recent days, one name which has emerged as the favorite. Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon stated that the deal to announce Mourinho as the next Real manager was 90% certain contingent upon Mourinho accepting the offer.
Mourinho has been out of work since being unceremoniously dismissed as the Manchester United manager in December last year and was previously in charge of the Spanish giants between 2010 and 2013 with his tenure ending in acrimonious circumstances.
Despite all of his discretions, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez remains a firm fan of the Portuguese. However, appointing Jose Mourinho as the next manager of Real Madrid could be detrimental to their fortunes. In this piece, we shall be taking a look at five reasons why Real Madrid must not hire Jose Mourinho as their next manager.
#5 His fractious relationship with Real’s players
Mourinho's appointment as Real Madrid coach would be a clash from the not too distant past between him and some key Real Madrid players, with their previous story not having a very pleasant ending.
The 56-year-old Portuguese has a reputation of being an authoritarian no-nonsense coach who demands utmost respect from his players.
While this worked earlier in his managerial career, this method has had disastrous consequences in recent years, with his style of management coming to a head during his spell at Madrid where he clashed with a number of notable players including Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo, with the situation apparently getting to a head when the players stated that Perez had to choose between them and the coach.
Of the trio, only Sergio Ramos still remains at the club, but the 32-year-old wields an enormous amount of power within the Real dressing room after he stated that ‘respect is earned not demanded’.
Marcelo, who did not have a public fallout with Mourinho, maintains a very close personal relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo and this could complicate matters if the Portuguese manager returns to Bernabeu.
The relationship between players and manager in football is extremely important. Without a harmonious working relationship, results are bound to spiral downwards. So why would Real want to put two of their most senior players in such a difficult situation by appointing a man whom they have so much animosity?
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4 His poor record in recent years
Jose Mourinho is undoubtedly one of the greatest manages in the history of football and his trophy haul can attest to that.
However, a cursory look at his 24 major managerial medals shows that he has not been doing too much winning in recent years, with his major triumphs coming in the earlier part of his career. There's been no Champions League triumph since 2010, while his last league title came way back in 2015. The only comforting fact was his Europa League victory in 2017 when he was in-charged of Manchester United.
Mourinho has had the requisite tools at his disposal, managing the then most expensive squad of all time at Real Madrid. Under him, he also had Ronaldo and Paul Pogba who are both two of the costliest players in history.
Each of Jose Mourinho's last three managerial jobs has ended in disappointment. He almost always loses the dressing room towards the end of his journey with the club. First, he failed to win the Champions League or break Barcelona's domestic and continental stranglehold at Real Madrid. Then, when he joined Chelsea, he flopped spectacularly in his second spell just a year on from leading them to the 2015 EPL trophy. While at Manchester United, he was involved in disputes and lost the dressing room.
The 'Special One' once had his results on the field to back his grandiose claim up, but with his struggles over the last few years, he has shown that he is not quite so special anymore.
Real Madrid are very much in need of a coach who can take them to the next level, but how Perez quite believes that man could be a coach who has struggled so horribly in recent years defies explanation.
#3 His negative tactics
Real Madrid are a club that pride themselves on not just winning, but winning very well and in style, with the manner in which a result is gotten almost having as much significance as the result itself.
Having had some of the most legendary footballers throughout history represent them, it is almost a given that the players are expected to always turn up the style whenever they put on the famous white jersey of Real Madrid.
A perfect example of how seriously positive football is taken at the Bernabeu comes in the fact that legendary Italian manager Fabio Capello who guided the club to the La Liga title in 2006/2007 (ending a drought of three trophyless seasons) was still sacked just few days after the triumph for playing negative football.
Jose Mourinho has made a name for himself throughout his managerial career as a pragmatic manager who prizes defensive solidity above everything else, caring little about aesthetics and preferring to get victory at all costs.
Most of Jose's successes have come on the back of strong defensive performances from his players. Considering how much emphasis is placed on attractive football at Real, it is not rocket science to understand that the notoriously demanding Bernabeu crowd would not warm up to his tactics.
#2 His outdated style of management
Jose Mourinho has struggled to come to terms with the harsh realities of managing a modern day professional footballer. This is understandable as the 54-year-old began his managerial career in an era when the manager had the utmost authority at a football club.
However, modern-day football operates on a much different scale. The footballers have much more visibility than their managers. Jose Mourinho once moaned about having to coach 'grown kids' these days and how players like John Terry and Frank Lampard were already men at the age of 22.
However, a key point to note is that Terry and Lampard played in much different worlds to those of the current footballer. There was no social media back then nor was there as much coverage of football as there is now.
Social media has changed virtually all aspects of our lives, from the way we act and interact with one another to the way we think and live and this is no different with professional footballers, as social media sites have helped turn footballers into cult celebrities, followed by teeming fans running into their millions around the world.
The result of this is that the average footballer today requires a much different management style to that which was obtainable back in the day and this is something Jose has failed to fully understand.
Mourinho's strongest point back in his heyday was his uncanny ability to forge a unifying bond with his players, with stars he coached at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan still holding him in high reverence till this day.
That has not been the case at his most recent jobs. Real Madrid's squad is littered with world class players who have won it all and have some of the biggest egos in the world. As such, judging from Mourinho's long record of falling out with players, it is highly possible that it could happen once again at the Bernabeu.
#1 There are better options
While Jose Mourinho might be the favorite for the Real Madrid job, there are also a number of potential candidates who could be appointed in Solari's stead.
Coaches like Antonio Conte, Laurent Blanc and Arsene Wenger are among a host of serial winning managers who are currently without a job. Others such as Jurgen Klopp, Max Allegri and Mauricio Pochetino might prove more problematic due to their current engagements.
Almost all of the aforementioned coaches are arguably better options for Real Madrid than Jose Mourinho at the moment, as they have been among the most successful coaches in the world over the last few years, while also possessing the requisite managerial skills to thrive at the club.
The Real coaching job is arguably the biggest in the world and it is every coach's dream to seat on the Bernabeu hotseat, with the allure of managing such great players and all the history attached to the club making it almost impossible to say no. Hence, convincing them to take the job should not be too difficult.
Since there are a number of world class coaching options available to Real Madrid who could represent better and cheaper alternatives to Jose Mourinho, why should the club settle for less when they can have much much more?
