Jose Mourinho is widely recognized as one of the best managers of his generation. The Portuguese gaffer is currently in charge of Serie A side AS Roma and helped them win the UEFA Conference League last season.
Roma are currently in 7th place and have 14 points fewer than league leaders Napoli. Mourinho might not be competing at the very highest level any longer, but his quality and records cannot be debated at all.
Mourinho is the most decorated Portuguese manager of all time, having won league titles in England, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
He helped kickstart Chelsea’s rise in the early 2000s, helping them break the Manchester United-Arsenal domination and leading them to two successive Premier League titles from 2004 to 2006.
He won the Champions League title with Inter Milan in the 2009/10 season, while also helping Real Madrid end Barcelona’s domination by winning the La Liga title in the 2011-12 season.
Mourinho’s time at Manchester United – which he considers his greatest achievement – saw him help them win the Carabao Cup and Europa League titles as well as finish 2nd in the 2017/18 PL season.
Jose couldn’t win any silverware with Tottenham Hotspur before getting back to winning ways with AS Roma.
Mourinho is a blockbuster character, having a notorious reputation for his snarky press conferences and mind games with other managers.
He is also an astute tactician who knows each and every rule of the beautiful game. Mourinho has developed some unconventional methods of helping his side win matches over the years – be it parking the bus or focusing on counter-attacking football.
But there are certain small details he executed perfectly which ensured the side he manages is able to grind through a win.
Mourinho’s former star defender at Chelsea, John Terry has recently revealed a fascinating story of how Mourinho outsmarted the Premier League rules during his time at the club.
It basically involved helping waste time when his side had the lead and leaving opposition players frustrated.
Detailing the story about how Jose did anything to get the win, Terry said on Bein Sports: “Just to win. Didn’t care about anything else, he did anything to get an edge.
“I remember, the rule was, if we were 1-0 up and the ball got delivered into the box…if two defenders went up together and both went down on the floor after, you didn’t have to go off the field of play.
“So last 10 or 15 minutes, he would sit me and Gary Cahill down and go: ‘when the ball comes in the box, make sure you both go down – bump into each other and both go down because you can’t both go off.
“We’d never heard of that rule ever. So the ball comes over in the last 10 minutes, head it away, Gaz goes down and I think ‘I better go down’. So I dropped to the floor and the ref said ‘you two off the pitch’. I said ‘no that’s not the rule, ask the linesman’.
“Mourinho was so far ahead with those little bits and you’re talking small margins and the best managers find those little margins. Incredible.”
This is just a prime example of how Mourinho was a step ahead of literally everyone during his peak years as a manager.
While it’s unlikely that he will get back to being the best manager in the world anytime in the future, stories like these – alongside his amazing achievements – will always keep him among the best of all time.