Mourinho – The Enigma Variations

He has characterised himself as The Special One and grateful members of various branches of the sporting media have dubbed him a Breath of Fresh Air. But in the light of recent events it might be more accurate to describe him as The Enigma.

Jose Mourinho, the manager of Chelsea Football Club, is a mass of contradictions – a charismatic and brilliant man who nevertheless seems vulnerable and racked with insecurity.

The man who learned as Bobby Robson’s interpreter became a successful manager in Portugal and in European competition, before joining Chelsea and winning the Premiership and the Carling Cup in his first season. Enough to boost any manager’s confidence – especially when he has the support of a multi-millionnaire.

Yet curiously enough the man who is reputed to be so self-confident and so thorough and meticulous in all matters concerning the preparation of his players routinely launches himself into press conferences shooting recklessly from the lip - and betraying an underlying insecurity which, for all his efforts, he never quite manages to disguise.

He criticises opposing players, managers and match officials. He is evidently incensed and wounded by the suggestion that, for all its ruthless efficiency, his team lacks spontaneity, inventiveness, charm. And confronted by the occasional failure – a draw with Everton, a defeat in the Carling Cup – he ‘deals’ with it by going into denial. We did not draw. We did not lose……

Nowhere is this hypersensitivity more apparent than in his references to Arsene Wenger, an intelligent and much respected manager who in some 9 years at Highbury has won the Premiership three times, the FA Cup four times (including two ‘doubles’) and never finished lower than second.

It is ironic that Mourinho, who demands respect, seems reluctant to show respect for a record like that. Perhaps it is not just the results, but the quality of football which Arsenal produce that rankles with Mourinho.

Whatever the reason, in his latest outburst he responded to Arsene Wenger’s observations on the recent decline in his team’s performances by calling the Arsenal manager a ‘voyeur’.

It was, to put it mildly, not Mourinho’s finest moment. By launching a personal attack upon a distinguished fellow manager he merely underlined his own insecurity. And by choosing the word he did, he emphasised that his command of the language still has some way to go. The most charitable interpretation of ‘voyeur’ is that of a ‘peeping tom’, which is quite inappropriate and totally unjustifiable in relation to Arsene Wenger. However, the word has other, much more serious, connotations – of which we can only hope that Mr Mourinho is unaware.

It has been suggested (though not by Arsene Wenger) that Mourinho’s press conferences are more interesting than the performances of his team. Given his sensitive nature, this is a point that might worry him, since he has declared emphatically that the word ‘entertainment’ has no place in his football vocabulary.

And hell is likely to freeze over before the Arsenal manager agrees with that.