Teachers' Day Special - Jose Mourinho: teacher, mentor, guide

“He can be tough too. (Samuel) Eto’o didn’t play sometimes last season,” adds the Dutchman. “He said to the team manager he wanted a meeting with Mourinho. He came back and said ‘Mourinho doesn’t have time for you, Samuel. And if it’s about the line up, he won’t have time for you at all. If you don’t like it here, pack your bag and walk’. And after a while, Eto’o played winger and started to defend and track back.

“Mourinho is a wizard.”

Jose Mourinho (L) and Marco Materazzi shared a special relationship

Eto’o’s time under Mourinho came after Zlatan Ibrahimovic swapped places with the Cameroonian at Barcelona, along with a hefty wad of cash filling the Italian team’s coffers. But the prolific Swede has kind words for his former manager.

“José Mourinho is a big star,” writes Ibrahimovic in his autobiography I am Zlatan. “He had won Champions League already with Porto. He was my coach in Inter. He’s cool. The first time he met (Zlatan’s wife) Helena he whispered to her: ‘Helena, you only have one mission. Feed Zlatan, let him sleep, keep him happy!’ The guy says what he wants. I like him. He’s the leader of an army. But he also cares. He was sending me text messages all the time in Inter asking how I was feeling.”

Mourinho is one of the few coaches Zlatan Ibrahimovic truly respects. ‘Ibra’ has always been a player who, in his own words, has run his own race. He argued with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, challenged the great Louis van Gaal at Ajax and has always had a fractious relationship with the world’s media.

But he remembers Mourinho because he was invested in Zlatan the human being, not just Zlatan the footballer and understood what made him happy.

There are, of course, others - Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba - two icons of Chelsea’s recent successes who shined under the Special One during his first spell in West London always have fond words for him when speaking to press.

Chelsea legend Lampard was close to leaving the club after his contract expired this summer, but it was Mourinho who asked him to sign on after he’d been confirmed as Chelsea boss. It is due to Mourinho, says the midfielder, that the entire team is raring to go.

“We are very aware of how he is and, if there is a spring in my step, it’s because it is like having a new teacher at school,” says the 35-year-old. “It can only be a good thing when you have 22 players all wanting to play. We have had that all pre-season.

“There has been a real lift around the place. The young players have reacted to the manager,” finishes Lampard, one of only four players present at Stamford Bridge at the time of Mourinho’s second coming.

That Mourinho wrote the foreword in Drogba’s autobiography shows how close the relationship is between player and manager. Drogba remains forever thankful to the Portuguese because he made him the world-beater he is today. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, the Drog said:

“He brought me to Chelsea. I improved and grew up with Chelsea, becoming the player everyone knows now. I hope everyone respects now that this is for me a team that I cannot forget. I will always be linked to Chelsea. For me, it is normal. You can’t take away from my heart what I did with this club and all the people I played with.”

That link to Chelsea could soon be one that expands from a role larger than just that of former player. Mourinho is keen on securing the forward’s services in a coaching capacity which would see him return to Fulham Road.

These are but a handful of players who Mourinho has had a hand in developing and whether tangible or not, every player who has played under him and trained alongside him will feel the his imprint. Just ask <Marco Matterazzi; the Italian broke down when Mourinho was leaving Inter Milan, and if he can make a veritable enforcer such as the man who will be remembered for his head-butt on Zinedine Zidane at the World Cup Final shed tears, it is clear that he has touched the lives of those who are fortunate enough to work with him.

Mourinho will be remembered for many things. The press will remember him as one who always entertains. Opposing managers will remember him for his will to win. Head honchos at clubs will remember him for the manner in which he was at loggerheads with them.

But to the players who are what they are today because of him, he will always be the Special One.