Jose Mourinho’s outlandish antics were lapped-up by the desperate English media, anxious for a circus after a decade of the learned words of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, but their Italian counterparts have warmed far less to the Portuguese’s arrogant assertiveness.The pair have been in constant battle ever since Mourinho walked into his first press conference as Inter Milan coach and spoke flawless Italian. While it was certainly an impressive show, it also demonstrated that the former Chelsea and Porto boss was immediately ready for battle. Whether that was with opposition coaches or the press was up to the self-proclaimed ’special one’, but Mourinho had already made a mark on Serie A.
His flamboyant attitude often worked in his favour when Chelsea were being criticised from all angles - poor discipline, boring football, bad results. It would help him avoid a press mauling and kept his stock high when the markets were still an attractive proposition.
But like the financial markets across the globe, Mourinho’s share price has fallen greatly within just a couple of months as investors lose confidence in his capabilities.
His coaching ability surely cannot be questioned but Inter’s style and, more crucially, results have not been entirely satisfying. Fans of the Nerazzurri are well used to a lack of panache after years under the conservative Roberto Mancini but silverware was never lacking. The Italian secured the scudetto three years running but failed on the continent. Thus Mourinho was charged with the task of winning the Champions League, a competition in which he has enjoyed doses of both success and failure.
His objective seems singular and clear, but Mourinho must be wary of putting all his eggs in one basket. Failure on the peninsula would mean glory at home becoming a necessity, ensuring Inter’s latest head coach must keep his side competitive both domestically and on the road.
So far, it has been a shaky beginning. Unconvincing, narrow victories over small fry Bologna, Lecce and Catania have been mixed with a draw at Sampdoria and a significant defeat in the Milan derby against their fierce rivals. Inter’s Champions League campaign has also go off to a tepid start, a home draw with Werder Bremen on matchday two resulting in the most intense criticism of Mourinho thus far.
Mourinho if a long way from crisis point or a Landsbanki-style liquidation, though. Inter will almost certainly progress from their Champions League group and will be looking to hit top form in the new year rather than peak at this premature stage. They sit equal first in Serie A and face little real opposition with last year’s rivals Roma flailing dramatically, AC Milan still far too inconsistent and Juventus offering little to suggest they are ready to challenge for the scudetto yet.
But his wars with other clubs - ranging from a very public row with Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri, his predecessor at Chelsea to incurring actual physical threats from Catania chief executive Pietro Lo Monaco (”Mourinho is simply someone who should be smacked in the mouth”) - and a deteriorating relationship with the media, who reacted furiously when he failed to turn up at a press conference, are not helping his cause.
Chelsea fans, however, well know Mourinho does things either his way, or no way. It is something that the Italians must get used to because the 2004 Champions League winner plans to hang around for a while.
Of course, he is not the sole decider of his future. Results will do that for him and with tough matches away at Roma and Fiorentina coming up in October, Mourinho’s mettle will be genuinely tested for the first time since he arrived after a brief sabbatical from the game. Rival teams and the omnipresent press are essentially side issues in Inter’s big season. Should Mourinho succeed as he did so magnificently with Chelsea, his ills will be forgotten in a rush and he will soon be heralded by the never easy to please Italian media as a messiah, along with the Inter supporters starved of major European glory for more than four decades.
Having already made his inimitable impression off the pitch, it’s now time for Mourinho to do his talking within the San Siro walls and deliver the missing piece of European silverware to Inter’s trophy cabinet.
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