When Van Gaal was replaced in 2000, José’s contract was not renewed. He wanted to leave in fact, as he felt ready to be a number one. Pep was finishing his seventh season in the first team of Barcelona when Mourinho looked for a coaching job in Portugal.
The rest is history. José became a winning coach and his success with Porto and Chelsea gave him the opportunity to replace Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, certainly one of his biggest dreams.
But his tumultuous relationship with the Barça fans made some decision-makers at the Catalan club wary. It all began to go wrong when he first returned to the Camp Nou as Chelsea manager for a Champions League clash in 2005. In the first of many stormy encounters with the Catalans, Mourinho accused Rijkaard of making a visit to referee Anders Frisk’s dressing room at half-time. Mourinho complained to UEFA and in the ensuing maelstrom Frisk announced his retirement after receiving email death threats from fans over the issue. Consequently, the head of UEFA’s referee committee branded Mourinho ‘an enemy of football’.
But behind that controversial mask, there is an extraordinary coach – and Mourinho had several admirers at the Camp Nou. In the meeting that took place with the Barcelona directors in Lisbon in the spring of 2008, he desperately wanted to impress them. After the encounter, he was convinced he had been chosen ahead of Pep Guardiola.
But when he was rejected, with no clear notification from the Barcelona directors for many weeks, there was a burning feeling of betrayal.
Barcelona, on the other hand, and not for the first or the last time, were unable to take advantage of what could have been considered one of their assets: after all, Mourinho had been at the club and knew it well. It is a disease of the Catalan or even the Barcelona mentality: treat as deserters those who leave the club, the nation, as happened with Ronaldinho recently or even with Pep Guardiola himself. Instead of a friend, José became and was portrayed by the Catalan media and football society as a foe – yet one with inside information and harbouring the bitterness of rejection, the worst kind of antagonist.
Following that rejection and after winning the league twice and the Champions League with Inter Milan in a two-year spell, he got the chance to sign for Real Madrid: an alternative route to a date with destiny involving FC Barcelona.
Pep’s and José’s first encounter on opposing benches took place in the group stages of the Champions League, 2010. Barcelona, the reigning champions, met Inter Milan in Mourinho’s second season at the Italian club and drew 0-0 in Italy, but the result didn’t reflect the magisterial lesson in style, positioning and possession of the Catalans. At the return leg at the Camp Nou, Guardiola decided to leave Ibrahimović and Messi on the bench for the in-form Pedro and Henry, who played as striker, and again the performance was excellent – an emphatic 2-0 victory.
‘Mourinho, go to the theatre,’ sang the Barcelona fans as a reminder of his comment about Leo Messi’s supposed ‘play-acting’ in a 2006 tie against Chelsea and of his provocative slide along the Nou Camp touchline to celebrate a Chelsea goal the last time he was in the visitors’ dugout. The Portuguese coach cocked his ear to the 98,000 Barça fans the second time they taunted him.
All in all, it had been an uncomfortable return for José, but he was gracious in defeat: ‘Barça were spectacular,’ he admitted afterwards. This first exchange of blows between both managers reflected the expected superiority in quality. But Mourinho learnt up close what made Pep’s team so good.
The two managers met again in the semi-finals of the competition that same season, ideal for Mourinho, who was becoming a specialist in knockout situations. His repeated strategy included kicking off the match in pre-game press conferences, creating a hostile atmosphere and placing football traps everywhere in the match.
For the first leg, Barcelona had to make their way to Milan by coach as a volcanic ash cloud drifting south from Iceland had paralysed European air travel. UEFA never considered suspending the game and Barcelona had no option but to spend fourteen hours on a bus to reach their Milan hotel. Inter were tactically better prepared for the Catalans than earlier in the season and in the second half Pep’s team didn’t quite seem at the races – despite scoring first, they conceded a Diego Milito goal (although clearly offside), and finally Inter deservedly won 3-1.
As expected, Mourinho continued playing his games in the post-game press meeting: ‘It is always difficult to lose, especially for those that are not used to it.’ Guardiola knew the game José wanted to play and avoided being led into confrontation: ‘I respect him a lot and I won’t spend a single second answering things like that.’
Pep needed his team to focus on the return match. José knew that Barcelona were uncomfortable when dealing with strong emotions.
Mourinho, in his press conference before the return leg, fired another barb in Pep’s direction: ‘We are following a dream; Barcelona are pursuing an obsession. They have this obsession called “Bernabéu”.’ That season’s Champions League final was to be played at Real Madrid’s stadium and José had shrewdly chosen those words even though Inter had not won the European cup in thirty years. He added: ‘We are used to seeing these Barcelona players throwing themselves on the floor a lot.’
Guardiola shook his head as he was listening to Mourinho’s words in a backroom at the Camp Nou. When it was his turn to face the media, he tried to find the right tone to react to José’s message and he wanted to steer the minds of players in a more positive direction: ‘My feeling is of huge happiness, of an indescribable pleasure. It is an honour and a privilege to play again a semi-final of the Champions League. I will enjoy the game and I want my players to do so too. I have told them to be themselves. We aren’t playing against Inter, we’re playing against ourselves. We are going to see if we are capable of being ourselves in the most important, transcendental game of our lives. Inter Milan don’t even exist.’
Pep also felt the need to reinforce what his club were about after Mourinho’s insinuations: ‘We are an exemplary institution. We have lost and won a few times in the past twenty months, but we have always retained respect.’
Mourinho had picked his battleground and the rules under which this second leg was going to be fought – and it worked against a Barcelona side which acted from the first minute of the game as if it were the last. Iniesta was absent through injury and the team missed his clarity of passing and vision. When Thiago Motta was sent off after a clash with Busquets, Inter had to dig in and defend for about an hour: in many ways the perfect scenario for them because it meant they could drop deep unashamedly.
Piqué scored well into the second half and a Bojan goal was disallowed for handball – but the Italian team, defending superbly, made it to the final.
Mourinho walked on to the Camp Nou pitch at the final whistle with his arms aloft, looking to the sky – only for Víctor Valdés and the water sprinklers to bring a premature ending to his victory parade. ‘It is the most wonderful defeat of my life,’ he added minutes later.
Pep was magnanimous following his side’s knockout from the competition, no excuses were made and he was pragmatic about Mourinho: ‘Criticising him would be looking down on Inter and that is not fair.’
Two days after being KO’d from the Champions League by Inter Milan, Barça found themselves playing for the league title away from home at Villarreal’s ground, with four games remaining. Guardiola noticed that his players were hurt, broken by the defeat in the competition they were anxious to win. ‘What do I say to them?’ he asked himself out loud an hour before sitting down in the el Madrigal dugout. Pep was obsessed with motivational messages being clear, concise, uncomplicated. He had previously used videos, even from YouTube, ideas, inspirational stories, even lectures by heroes of his to boost team morale.
That day he approached his players smiling. There was not going to be a video. ‘Gentlemen, I can’t ask any more of you. You have given me more than any coach could ask of his players. You’re great. Thank you for everything. I just want to say one thing. I
f we go out there and we lose, and the league is beyond our reach, it doesn’t matter. Not at all. Be calm. Thank you so much. For me, you are all champions.’ Pep’s father, Valentí, was in the stands. Barça won the match 4-0 and recaptured the league title once again, the second in a row for Pep’s team.
In his last press conference of that season, Guardiola sent a veiled message to the Madrid press when he congratulated Madrid’s players and staff for forcing them to reach ninety-nine points to win the title, ‘but only them’. The assaults from the Spanish capital were harsh and not easily dealt with by Pep: ‘Sometimes we felt scorned. Sometimes we were ashamed to celebrate titles. We have only played a sport in the best way we can but we have felt, for a while now, that we do things that are not being supported everywhere. So we have to do the work of an ant, of not responding to all the attacks. We know they have very loud speakers but it would only be fair if we all respected these players that have dignified their profession with their effort. In any case, nothing will change, especially if Mourinho comes to La Liga.’
Even before José’s arrival, certain sectors of the Madrid press were looking for reasons to criticise and even attack Barcelona, a team that was receiving plaudits from the rest of the world. According to that media: referees were benefiting Barcelona, the Spanish FA were helping them any way they could, UEFA turned a blind eye whenever Barça were involved, the television schedule was favourable to them – and some even suggested that opposition coaches were letting Pep’s team win.
That sector of the media that wanted to take the Barcelona–Madrid rivalry to extremes would join forces with Mourinho in the coming season – in what turned out to be a radicalisation of the coverage that helped paint both coaches in very simple terms: this drama was going to be, right from the beginning of the season, a struggle between good and evil in the eyes of the press.
After the summer, Guardiola welcomed the arrival of the new Real Madrid coach in his first press appearance of the 2010–11 campaign: ‘Mourinho will improve me as a manager. It is important that he works in Spain because he is one of the best in the world. He will make us all better.’ Pep knew José’s tricks: a loyal core of players around the manager, criticisms of authority and refereeing, the ‘us against the world’ mentality and, ultimately, a very powerful, comprehensive method to win titles.
Pep had an idea of what was to come and his words were effectively a means of composing himself, taking a deep breath, before rolling up his shirtsleeves for the battle that would inevitably commence.
Before the season gathered pace, Mourinho and Guardiola shared a few pleasantries at that UEFA coaches meeting in Nyon – five months after Barcelona’s Champions League KO at the hands of Inter. The pair were never on their own at the conference but Mourinho made an effort to make Guardiola, in his first visit to the forum, welcome. Pep, nevertheless, could not help feeling a bit tense next to the Portuguese coach.
Behind the amicable façade, José had decided that, in order to beat Barcelona, this extraordinary collection of players that stood for one particular interpretation of the game of football, he had to target their foundations, undermine and unsettle their cushioned life. Watching a Barça game just before he became the Madrid manager, Mourinho was amazed at the way the referees effectively laid out the red carpet for the Catalans, and how even opposition players and fans were in awe of their talents and superiority. Mourinho decided that this had to finish, that Barcelona needed to be knocked off their pedestal. And in order to do that, he would need to use every weapon in his armoury of words, accusations and insinuations.
It was, of course, not a new strategy for Mourinho. He had used similar approaches in England and Italy, adapting his methods to the respective countries. But the way he would execute his plan in Spain would require taking those tactics to the extreme – not least because this time his rival would be the most powerful he had ever encountered.
Two big names and strong personalities rode into town, and that town wasn’t big enough for the both of them. Or, at least, that’s how the media liked to portray it.
Media and fans enjoy explaining the world through a set of values, prejudices and predetermined points of view that configure the vision we have of it. That the world is becoming 140 characters long (the length allowed by Twitter) reinforces the necessity of reducing the complexities of life in very simple black and white terms.
It’s the latest chapter in a very old story. Barcelona and Madrid have always been understood as two different institutional models, but, from that year, with José’s addition, it became as partisan and polarised as at perhaps any point in the past. Mourinho provided the kind of theatrical confrontation that this symbolic clash thrives upon. It’s a contest made in heaven because it is, without a doubt, a mutually beneficial rivalry that is nourished by preconceived ideas and fuelled by clichés that have taken hold because it’s convenient, not just for fans and media, but for the clubs themselves who are happy for it to continue – it’s good for business and also because they operate in a world where people need to create a sense of opposites in order to help affirm their own allegiances and identities.
It was frequently presented as a David and Goliath story throughout the previous century with Barcelona relishing their status as underdogs, while Real Madrid were more than happy to play the role of the big guy. But now they are two evenly matched Goliaths slugging it out, toe to toe, round after round after round.
Just as the world of politics shows different ways of comprehending the world, the respective styles of Barcelona and Real Madrid demonstrate two different ways of understanding the beautiful game. Madrid has always been characterised by an energetic style of play, strong, fast and competitive. Whereas Barcelona discovered, in the Dutch model, a valid alternative style to take on Madrid: effective passing and offensive play.
‘That role of an antagonist fits in well in Spanish football, because Spain is always the red and blue Spain, the peripheral and centralist, the Spain of Guardiola and Mourinho. That duality is something that is received well by people. Mourinho has accentuated the division between the different ways of seeing football that Barça and Madrid have. The interesting thing is the U-turn Madrid has taken goes against their history, because Madrid has never entrusted the team to a coach’; that’s how Alfredo Relaño, director of the sports daily AS, explains it.
Although the Portuguese coach claims to challenge himself more than he does others (‘I always try and set my sights on difficult goals so that I am always competing with myself’), the following quote about his controversial take on rivalries gives an interesting insight into his working philosophy: ‘Having enemies in order to give your all isn’t necessary, but it is better. Especially when you’re enjoying a lot of success and you tend to relax.’
So the ongoing battles between these two great sporting institutions eventually boiled down to this clash of personalities, this fight between their respective coaches. Such was the media presence of Guardiola and Mourinho, the teams almost played second fiddle to their leaders, becoming known as ‘Guardiola’s team’ or ‘Mourinho’s team’. The sides began to lose their own identities in the midst of the duel, much like what has happened in the technological battle between BlackBerry and iPhone – the products have devoured their brands: Rim and Apple. The leading roles of the coaches gave the coaches themselves (the products) the victories, more so than the clubs (the brands).
And, to the casual onlooker, both of them developed a footballing project that was antagonistic.
Pep Guardiola surrounded himself with players from the youth team who shared the same values: emphasis placed on good passing, teamwork, good behaviour on and off the pitch, as well as some signings that understood the philosophy. As Eto’o and Ibrahimović discovered, those who didn’t share his vision of the world and of football were soon moved on.
The Portuguese coach led a team of individuals whose loyalty to their manager was unconditional – they were prepared to give their lif
e for him and in the name of victory. Anyone who doubted him was swiftly brushed aside. Madrid’s traditionally vigorous style of play became aggressive, even violent, on occasions. Madrid were capable of humiliating rivals, they had an insatiable hunger to win and it was visible for all to see exactly how much they enjoyed doing so.
For Mourinho, press conferences were like a theatre in which he really got into character and revelled in the attention. He would claim that Real Madrid were the victims of complex conspiracy theories at the hands of the referees, FIFA, the Spanish government and even UNICEF. For him, victories were to be expected as he believed it was what the team deserved, whereas the various defeats and draws were always treated with suspicion and with accusations of foul play. He would defend to the hilt his players’ often aggressive behaviour but he would cry blue murder at similar conduct of his opponents against his team.
Whether he likes it or not, Pep has become a standard-bearer for good values, in a world in which there is a distinct lack of them. Mourinho is more of a product of our society, a preacher of a modern way of thinking, who doesn’t shy away from conflict and arguing with those in authority, always seeking explanations and making claims about conspiracy theories. His teams win because they do things right; they lose because someone or something has not let them win.
If Pep’s greatest virtue is his sense of caution, then Mourinho’s is pure excess. The Portuguese prefers to massage his players’ egos and point them in the direction of achieving good results; even Mourinho himself has defined himself as a ‘manager of egos’. Guardiola bases his methods on developing his players’ confidence through opportunities, motivation.
Their individual styles of leadership reflect their personalities. Mourinho defends and enjoys his nickname ‘the Special One’ – he feels he is different from the rest and makes sure that nobody remains indifferent to him; they either love him or loathe him. Including his players, who are all aware that there are consequences to their behaviour because Mourinho operates a system of praise and punishment. Perhaps that gives José less trajectory in a club than a team coached by Pep – it is very hard to deal with constant pressure. Pep prefers to appeal to the players’ individual emotions in order to generate a feeling of belonging to the group.
Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography Page 29