Ever since he strolled into Stamford Bridge and announced himself as the ‘Special One,’ Jose Mourinho has been box office.
He might not be to everyone’s taste, but he certainly makes headlines wherever he goes, and no publicity is bad publicity for the Portuguese.
His latest stop off is the Turkish Super Lig and a two-year stint at Fenerbahce, a somewhat surprising turn of events given the standard at which Mourinho prefers to operate, with respect.
Mourinho taking the money says Collymore
Maybe it shows that he is becoming yesterday’s man, though Stan Collymore believes that there’s an entirely different reason for the move.
“Jose Mourinho is very clever. What he does is that as his managerial abilities wane, his mouth works overtime. We know from the ‘Special One’ thing that he’s having himself, but he was winning major trophies with major clubs at the time,” he said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Let’s not beat about the bush, he likes a pound note. He’s getting paid €21m over two years by Fenerbahce, so he’s not going anywhere for other than top, top, top dollar. You have a look at the deals that he signed with Roma and Fenerbahce and with the greatest respect, neither are getting anywhere near the Champions League. They’re not getting anywhere near the Europa League either.
“If you’re a chairman and you see Mourinho popping up on Sky Sports or any television channel around Europe to tell you how great he is, you go ‘Brilliant. We’re going to get him,’ and fans will be lining the streets.
“The way to judge him though is when he leaves your club and he left Manchester United and Tottenham much worse off, in my opinion. Of course, the revisionists are now saying he was right about United but Mourinho left the dressing room fractured. At Tottenham, he did nothing. The football was turgid.
“So watch this space Fenerbahce fans. You’re all getting very giddy and very excited, but let’s see, in two years time, if your thoughts and memories of Jose Mourinho are the same as when he waved the shirt and kissed the badge.”
It’s hard to disagree with Collymore’s sentiments. After all, Mourinho is never backwards about coming forwards when speaking about himself.
He appears to have lost that Midas Touch, however, or it has at least deserted him for now.
Were he to be successful at the Turkish giants, there’s a real glass half full/glass half empty scenario.
Winning a title is of obvious merit, but it’s hard to be enthused by it when you only realistically have one challenger for that title – Galatasaray.
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By way of example, in the 2023/24 campaign, it was Galatasaray that won the Super Lig on the final day and with a total of 102 points. Fenerbahce finished second on 99.
In third place, Trabzonspor were an incredible 32 points behind on 67. To put that in perspective, in the 20 team league, Pendikspor, who were 19th, were 30 points behind Trabzonspor.
Effectively, Mourinho needs only to beat his biggest rivals and not have any unexpected slip ups, and the title will be his.
