Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has established a record which mere mortals would never be able to reproduce. An achievement spanning 4 clubs and nine years. An achievement probably bigger than winning a treble in the season.  Jose Mourinho has gone nine years without a league home defeat starting from his gold old days at Porto. And it has been achieved through some of the best man marking tactics and defensive planning rarely seen in modern day football. In a world where the lower ranked teams adopt similar techniques to avoid embarrassment against big teams, Jose Mourinho has no doubt established a new order wherein defensive approaches can also become exciting. Truth to be told, Jose has never been able to deliver attractive football and his style and approach has nevertheless been ridiculed but the fact that it has been highly successful doesn’t need much exercise to look into.

Sporting Gijon, a minnow of the La Liga party, upset the applecart of Real ahead of their decisive clash against Tottenham at Madrid when he ended the nine year unbeaten record courtesy of a 1-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu to hand a crippling psychological blow before the big match. And with this defeat, Jose has all but conceded the league title to their traditional and bitter rivals Barcelona. With 8 points separating the teams with a handful of games, even “The Special One” knows that only a miracle can send the La Liga trophy to Madrid from the clutches of the invincible Barcelona squad.

Looking forward to the quarter final tie against Tottenham, inspite of their defensive and injury worries, they seem to be on equal footing against the resilient Spurs side who have had problems of their own. With an elusive champions league spot next season looks certain to be too enar yet too far, it is harry Redknapp’s moment to deliver. The charismatic Harry has revolutionized Spurs and hence in my opinion they start as favourites on current predicaments.

A torrid future looks likely to be in store for Real Madrid. With the league all but gone and a King’s Cup final awaiting against the mighty army of footballers hailing from Barcelona, it boils down to the Champions league where they have some realistic chance atleast for the time being.

Tags: Football, Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid