Is Jose Mourinho provoking Real Madrid to fire him?

Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho is called the ‘special one’. The coach of Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid is a rare breed of managers, who do everything to win, even to the extent of being unfair, and Mourinho needs all powers with him within a club to operate his own way.When it works like it did at FC Porto, FC Chelsea and Internazionale Milan, Jose Mourinho is one of the best football coaches of our times, but when it doesn’t, like at the moment at Real Madrid, then all kind of problems come up. Mourinho sometimes even creates problems himself, like benching goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

After winning the La Liga title last season, Mourinho had a lot of credit with fans, club management and media. But over the second half of 2012, he has systematically destroyed that credibility, with his team not performing to the level that they did last season.

The weekend’s 2-3 loss to CF Malaga only made matters worse for Mourinho. Besides now being 16 points behind arch rivals FC Barcelona, he also benched Real Madrid legend and Spanish national team captain Iker Casillas for second goalkeeper Antonio Adán. Mourinho said that Adán had been better in training so deserved a chance, but benching ‘San Iker’ (holy Iker) is something one doesn’t do.

Many in Spain say this was the final nail in the coffin for Jose Mourinho and his reign at Real Madrid will soon come to an end, be it at the end of the ongoing season or earlier, though having a contract until June 30, 2016.

Now it will be interesting to see if Jose Mourinho stays Real Madrid manager until the high profile UEFA Champions League pre-quarterfinal against Manchester United or loses his job earlier.