The day after leaving Chelsea, Mourinho was offered Martin Jol’s job at Tottenham Hotspur. Jol was still in it. But everyone knew his days were numbered because Spurs officials had been photographed dining with the Sevilla coach Juande Ramos in Spain. Spurs had spent about £40 million on players, largely recommended by Damien Comolli, their director of football, during the summer and were in an ambitious frame of mind when they approached Mourinho offering to match his final Chelsea salary of £5.2 million a year. As they persisted in their entreaties, Mourinho kept negotiating with Chelsea, more than doubling the proposed payoff to himself and his coterie to £18 million, the bulk of which would naturally go into the Special One’s account. In return he promised not to join another Premier League club for twelve months. Tottenham had served their purpose. Five weeks later they sacked Jol and brought in Ramos, who never settled in England despite a Carling Cup final triumph over Chelsea, by now managed by Avram Grant, and was in his turn replaced by Harry Redknapp.
Mourinho did have an opportunity to stay in England without breaking his agreement with Chelsea, for in early December the FA, looking for a successor to Steve McClaren as England manager after the failure to qualify for the European Championship of 2008, approached him. He said he was tempted until he realised the job would entail periods of inactivity and decided to wait for the right one, which happened to be in Italy. The FA proceeded to put an Italian, Fabio Capello, in charge of the England team.
While Mourinho was waiting for the call to San Siro, the club from whom he had parted did not exactly collapse. There was some excitable noise at first, much of it emanating from the predictable source of Didier Drogba, who told France Football magazine: ‘I want to leave Chelsea. Nothing can stop me leaving now. Something is broken with the club. We all have the feeling that the story we have shared has finished too soon. We also have a feeling of helplessness. Everything hung on what the president [Abramovich] wanted. We are only employees. I made the mistake of putting too much feeling into the relationship with the manager.’
When you take this emotional outburst in the context of how Inter were to sink after Mourinho’s departure for Real Madrid in 2010, you begin to gauge the power of the loyalty Mourinho can inspire. But Chelsea were not capsized like Inter by the great waves his departure caused. There was Terry to steady the ship. And Frank Lampard. And Drogba, who swallowed his disappointment as only two League matches were lost – against Manchester United at Old Trafford in Grant’s first in charge, and later Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium – between late September and the end of the season. Furthermore, Chelsea got further than Mourinho had ever taken them in the Champions League – to the final, where, even after a petulant Drogba had been sent off, they would have beaten Manchester United on penalties but for Terry slipping on the artificial turf as he took his kick. They were also runners-up to United in the League.
But neither feat saved Grant from dismissal. Peter Kenyon, who, though his relationship with Mourinho had involved its share of storms, may have deemed his departure from the club premature (Mourinho always seemed to have more respect for Kenyon’s footballing credentials than those of other Chelsea executives), left in the autumn of 2009 to pursue other ventures. Frank Arnesen lasted until November 2010, when it was announced that he had resigned but would not leave until the end of the season; in fact he left a couple of months early to start work as director of football at Hamburg. By then Chelsea were on their fourth manager since Mourinho, though there was almost daily, and well founded, speculation that Carlo Ancelotti might go the way of Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari. Guus Hiddink had left of his own accord to return to international football. Manchester United still had the same manager. Sir Alex Ferguson had seen them all off and, after a run of consecutive English titles had been halted at three by Ancelotti’s Chelsea, stormed back to win another in 2011.
Meanwhile Mourinho had resumed the friendly relations he had originally enjoyed with Abramovich. They had never done much socialising together in London because neither was a great socialiser, as Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman, once pointed out. Buck likes to joke that he and Abramovich are the joint owners of Chelsea: ‘Roman has one million shares and I have one.’ But the quietly spoken American lawyer is the most communicative member of the club’s hierarchy. He said of Mourinho: ‘If José’s not working, he wants to be with his family.’ And of Abramovich: ‘Roman isn’t very big on going to black-tie dinners and things. He tends to hang around with people he’s known since his twenties, and they tend to be his Russian friends.’ But they did begin to keep in touch after Mourinho left Chelsea. Six months into his fallow period, Mourinho accepted a gift of a limited-edition Ferrari worth £2 million from Abramovich and there have been occasional meetings since. There was even an offer to have his old job back which Mourinho politely declined in favour of his new obsession with restoring Real Madrid’s supremacy over Barcelona. Pep Guardiola had earlier been contacted in case he fancied building a new Barcelona at the Bridge but he, too, preferred to stay in Spain. It is extraordinary to reflect that this was in the early spring of a year in which Chelsea, though they were knocked out of the Champions League by Mourinho’s Inter, won the Double under Ancelotti.
Mark: my words
Before Mourinho and Guardiola clashed in the explosive Champions League semi-final of 2011, the customary invitation went out to Mark Halsey. By now the referee was back on the Premier League list and performing well. Had he gone to the first leg in Madrid, he might have felt sorry for Wolfgang Stark, the German official who had to keep control of a stormy affair in which one of Mourinho’s players, Pepe, was sent off and the Barcelona reserve goalkeeper, Pinto, also red-carded after a scuffle at the mouth of the tunnel as the teams went off at half-time. But Halsey couldn’t go to that one. He had promised his wife a short holiday in Devon – it was a glorious English spring – where he would be doing a run for charity and officiating at the League One match between Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle.
Halsey had been a semi-professional player. As a referee he reached Premier League level in 1999. Four years later, he travelled with Graham Poll and two linesmen to Porto for that Champions League fixture in which he first saw Didier Drogba – ‘he was playing up front for Marseille and I remember thinking what a good player he was even then, very strong and quick’ – and got to know Mourinho’s ways. ‘I’d never met this young man Mourinho before,’ said Halsey, ‘I’d seen a television programme about how he’d been assistant to Bobby Robson and then Louis van Gaal at Barcelona and thinking, “Wow, just learning the ropes from those kind of people,” especially when he’d had no experience as a professional footballer whatsoever. Anyway, we just seemed to hit it off together. I was the fourth official and you know what José’s like with his antics. He was just the same at Porto as he is now. But I used common sense, I handled him, and ever since he came to England we’ve been friends.’
Porto’s first home match in the competition that season – that historic season in which they followed up success in the UEFA Cup the previous season by taking the big one – had been a 3–1 defeat, albeit at the distinguished hands of a Real Madrid team featuring the galácticos Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane, but they had won 3–2 in Marseille and another victory over the French club, secured by a lone goal from Dmitri Aleinitchev, set them back on track for qualification for the knockout stages, in which they were to overcome Manchester United, Lyon, Deportivo La Coruña and, finally, Monaco.
After Mourinho had joined Chelsea, Halsey naturally refereed some of Chelsea’s matches. ‘He’d always shake my hand at the end and usually say, “Well done,” although sometimes it’d be more a case of him coming on to the pitch and saying, “Hey, what about that penalty you missed for me?” and I do remember at Fulham once he came in at half-time and had a few words about a handball. He still thinks I should have given him a penalty in a match against Newcastle. So we’ve had our disagreements. But he’s never spoken in an angry tone.
I know, when he comes out on TV, people may think of him as a bit arrogant, but that’s a long way from the truth as far as I’m concerned. He’s never given the impression of being angry with me. I don’t know why. I think he just likes my style of refereeing. He says he thinks of me as a twenty-third player on the pitch.’
In the last League match of Mourinho’s third season with Chelsea, the title having been relinquished, Everton were the visitors to Stamford Bridge. Halsey was the referee. He arrived early and was spotted by Mourinho, who invited him into his office for coffee. Halsey recalled: ‘He just said, “Come in, come in” and we sat down and spoke about football and refereeing decisions for about twenty or twenty-five minutes.’ At the interval, Everton led through a goal from James Vaughan, but twelve minutes into the second half Didier Drogba equalised. David Moyes, the Everton manager, was furious, believing that Mikel Arteta had been fouled in the build-up. He marched on to the pitch to protest to Halsey and was redirected to the stands to watch the match finish in a draw.
Then came the Cup final and the summer, at the end of which Halsey renewed acquaintance with Mourinho in the Community Shield match, again between Chelsea and United, at Wembley. He showed yellow cards to three Chelsea players – Tal Ben Haim, Ricardo Carvalho and John Obi Mikel – along with Wayne Rooney during a 1–1 draw. United, for what it was worth, won on penalties. ‘After the game he came up to me,’ said Halsey. ‘He just hugged me and said, “You are the top ref”.’
A few weeks later, Mourinho was gone from English football. Halsey, apart from the seven months he spent out of the game due to illness, continued to referee Chelsea matches. ‘I know the players who are still there hold him in the utmost respect,’ he said. ‘Sometimes, when I refereed a Chelsea match, I’d speak to Didier Drogba and ask him about José: “Are you gonna join our friend next year?” He’d just look at me and smile.’
In 2008, the Halsey family were struck the first of two blows when Michelle was found to have myeloid leukaemia. When Mourinho heard, he arranged for the family to stay at the five-star Lake Resort at Vilamoura on the Algarve. ‘This was just fantastic,’ said Halsey. ‘This was a place that cost 600 euros a night! Obviously, if he’d still been at Chelsea, I wouldn’t have gone. But for him just to go and do something like that – what can you say? He’s been an absolute inspiration to me and my family, with his words and everything.’ The following February, by which time Mourinho was more than halfway through his first season with Inter, Halsey visited Manchester with Michelle and their daughter, Lucy, for the second leg of a Champions League tie with United and joined the squad at their hotel before lunch. In the August came Halsey’s own crisis. ‘José kept in touch with me all the way through my treatment,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how he found out about the illness, but he was very quickly on the phone. Wherever he’s been, he’s had my number and been in touch by phone, text or email. I remember when I was going through my treatment I sent him a picture message. Obviously I had no hair at the time. “Here’s my latest picture,” I said, and he replied, “At least you’re better looking than Ray Wilkins!”’
Halsey, determined to return to the game, kept in shape and, in March 2010, having completed his treatment and got over the serious infection that followed, passed a referee’s fitness test. His first match was between the reserve teams of Leicester City and Scunthorpe United and at the start of April he was awarded a League Two fixture between Rotherham United and Port Vale. When the new season started, he was restored to the Premier League, taking charge of the newcomers Blackpool as they began the campaign with the first of many surprises, beating Wigan Athletic 4–0 on their own ground, after both sets of supporters had given Halsey a warm reception. While he had been working his way back through the lower levels, there had been time to share in the burgeoning success of Mourinho’s Inter.
Carlo Ancelotti, who had jousted with Mourinho in his first Inter season, coming off second best in a spiky Milan rivalry with one win to Mourinho’s three as the nerazurri maintained a title-winning habit discovered under Roberto Mancini, renewed painful acquaintance when with Chelsea in the Champions League. But he could amply console himself with the domestic double, Didier Drogba’s FA Cup final goal completing it after the League had been won in style. A style that would satisfy Roman Abramovich? You might think so. A century of League goals had been chalked up with the fifth of eight without reply from Wigan in the concluding match at the Bridge. There had earlier been seven against Stoke City, Aston Villa and Sunderland. But that Champions League departure at the hands of the man Abramovich had paid off rankled with the Russian. And now the European summit meeting was to be held in Chelsea’s absence once more.
On 17 May 2010, Halsey held a dinner in aid of the Christie, a Manchester hospital specialising in the treatment of cancer. Mourinho could not be there. He was preparing Inter for the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, now coached by Mourinho’s old teacher from the Barcelona days, Louis van Gaal. But he did have a DVD made and sent. It was played to hundreds of guests and an utterly unprepared Halsey, who sat back as Mourinho appeared on a giant screen with his now-trademark stubble and wearing Inter training kit. Mourinho looked into the camera and smiled.
‘Hi, Mark,’ he said. ‘I used to be called, in your country, the Special One but, to be fair, you are the special one. Why? Because you are the only ref in the world I can say is my friend. Because “friend”, for me, is a strong word. I know many referees and have good relations with lots of them, I respect lots of them, but “friend”, in the real sense of the word, you are the only one. Why? Maybe because we have had a chance to see each other outside football a couple of times. Also because in this moment, and for the last three years, we have been in different countries and this cleans everything – you are a Premier League referee and I am not a Premier League manager. But especially because you are an incredible person. A top person – very honest, very polite, very friendly. When you were refereeing Chelsea, I won with you, I lost with you, I drew with you. So I wasn’t winning all the time – I don’t forget that against Newcastle you didn’t see a penalty for Chelsea! But I’d always say you were player number twenty-three on the pitch, not a referee. And that is because of your mentality, your communication skills, your psychology. You are really one of the players. That is why everyone in the game respects you and likes you. And, finally, I could say “Congratulations” to you because you won again. But I don’t say “Congratulations”. Because from the moment I know you had this problem I told you, “No problem for you. Easy for you.” I know it wasn’t easy. I know you fought a lot. But still I don’t say, “Congratulations.” Because, for winners, it’s not necessary. Now you are back in football and I hope you can ref one of my matches. Because you are what I call you every time: “Top ref.” You are the top ref.’
And, with a thumbs-up to Halsey, who by now was in tears, Mourinho headed back to the task of preparing Inter for their date with Bayern in the Bernabéu five days later. Halsey was there. Mourinho had laid on tickets for all his family. He had offered to pay for flights, a hotel too. ‘I wouldn’t have that,’ said Halsey. ‘Anyway, we were on holiday in Spain at the time, so we just booked into a little place in Madrid for a couple of days. We went to the hotel where Inter were staying. We pulled up outside in a taxi and there were all these guards and police and security men. So Michelle said, “We’re not going to get in there,” and I said, “We will.” I took little Lucy and, as we walked up the steps, they all parted and let us through. There was José up on the balcony with all the players. He ran down and embraced me. My hair had grown back. It was very emotional. He’d been an inspiration to me during the illness. It was also quite funny because, when we arrived, he called me “top ref” as usual and some of the players who speak English came up and said, “Oh, so you’re not fictional then! You are real! José talks about you all the time.” And then they all came and shook my hand. Players and staff. It was fantastic. I love him to death, I really do.�
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And there was still the big match to come.
Champions of Europe
It was a very, very big season for Inter because, although they had become almost accustomed to winning the Italian title – Mourinho, benefiting as Mancini had done from the liberal funding of Massimo Moratti, Inter’s oil-rich owner, won his second to make it five in a row for the club – the latter of their two European titles had come in 1965. And Milan had taken no fewer than six since then, the most recent under Ancelotti in 2007.
In the previous season, Inter had made little headway in Europe, scraping through their opening group with a mere eight points before being dispatched by Manchester United, who won 2–0 at Old Trafford after a scoreless match at San Siro. Now the group-stage draw threw them in with Barcelona, the champions, who had beaten United at the end of Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge, the bright young man emerging triumphant over the veteran Sir Alex Ferguson. Straight away Barcelona came to San Siro. There followed an excruciating goalless match, a phoney war between the giants of the group. Barcelona and Inter were confidently expected to qualify ahead of Dynamo Kiev and Rubin Kazan, the new force from Russia. But Rubin shocked Barcelona by winning there and the champions were under pressure to take three points from Mourinho’s side at the Camp Nou. They stood up to it well, goals from Gérard Pique and Pedro barely reflecting their superiority on the night, and went on to top the group with victory in Kiev. Inter came second – and drew Chelsea in the first knockout round.
Mourinho: Further Anatomy of a Winner Page 20