José Mourinho: Chelsea Manager 2004 to 2007 & 2013 to 2015

In the wake of Gianluca Vialli’s successful stint as Chelsea manager, the role was given to another Italian in the form of Claudio Ranieri. It was during his premiership that Roman Abramovich took over the club from Ken Bates, determined to introduce his own style of running a football club. It involved spending huge sums of money and attracting the best people he could to Stamford Bridge, with Ranieri sacked in favour of an up and coming Portuguese manager who had just won the Champions League in unlikely circumstances with Porto. His name was José Mourinho and what followed was the start of a dominant period in the club’s history.

José Mourinho’s Honours as Chelsea Manager

Mourinho the Disappointing Player

Born José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix in the Portuguese city of Setúbal on the 26th of January 1963, José Mourinho, as he would become better-known, knew that his father had played football professionally, earning a cap for the national team. He wanted to be like his dad, joining the youth setup of Belenenses, one of the clubs that Mourinho Senior had played for. He signed for Rio Ave in 1980, playing for the reserve team and being joined by his father, who took over as first team coach in 1981. He struck up a brilliant working relationship with the veteran strike Mário Reis, scoring 47 times to Reis’ 53 goals.

As well as being a player for the reserves, Mourinho was also asked to scout other teams by his dad. He was rarely picked to play by his father, not getting his debut until a cup game in the third round of the Taça de Portugal. On the last day of the season, a defender was injured in the warm-up and Mourinho was instructed to get changed. The Club President, José Maria Pinho, thought it was a case of nepotism and so overruled the decision. This led both father and son to leave for Belenenses that summer. José Mourinho was once again limited to reserve team action, with the occasional cup appearance. He never really impressed as a player, remaining in the lower leagues of Portuguese football.

Becoming a Coach

As Mourinho’s professional career progressed, he began to realise that he wasn’t fast or strong enough to make it at the top level. Instead, he decided that it made sense for him to become a football coach instead. In the early 1990s he left his job as a school teacher and became the youth team coach at Vitória de Setúbal. He was then offered, and accepted, the assistant manager’s role at Estrela da Amadora before becoming a scout for Ovarense. He was offered a position as the translator for Bobby Robson, who had taken over the manager’s position at Sporting CP but didn’t speak any Portuguese, with Mourinho’s English being passable.

Jose Mourinho and Bobby Robson together at Sporting Lisbon, 1992. pic.twitter.com/iEA3gFlrK3

— 90s Football (@90sfootball) February 23, 2015

In his role as Robson’s interpreter, Mourinho would often discuss tactics with him and when Robson was sacked by Sporting and offered the role as the head coach of Porto, Mourinho went with him. He became his assistant at Porto, with the club going on to dominate Portuguese football for a time. The pair joined Barcelona in 1996 and worked together brilliantly, complimenting each others’ styles. They won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España. When Robson moved on, Mourinho remained at Barcelona and worked with Louis van Gaal, winning La Liga twice.

Taking Over at Chelsea

In the September of 2000, Mourinho got the chance to become a top-tier manager in his own right, taking over from Jupp Heynckes at Benfica. He let the club after just nine games in charge after asking for a contract extension, taking over at União de Leiria in the July of 2001. He impressed, with Porto giving him the manager’s job at the start of 2002. A year later and he’d won his first Primeira Liga, adding the Taça de Portugal and the UEFA Cup. The following season he won the Portuguese Super cup, won the Primeira Liga main and made it to the final of the Champions League, winning 3-0 against Monaco to win the biggest prize in football.

Roman Abramovich had watched Mourinho do the seemingly impossible. He wanted him to take over as the Chelsea manager, promising him huge sums of money to build whatever team he wanted. Mourinho interviewed for the Liverpool job and actually said that was the one that he wanted, but the Merseyside club offered the role to Rafa Benítez, Mourinho went to Stamford Bridge. He signed a three-year contract and became the Premier League’s first Portuguese manager, labelling himself as a ‘Special One’ in his first press conference at the club. He spent more than £70 million on new players, with success following.

Having defeated Liverpool in the final of the League Cup and seeing his side at the top of the Premier League table, Mourinho had to take on the Merseyside club again the semi-final of the Champions League. The first-leg ended 0-0, with Liverpool winning the second-leg 1-0 and making it to the final in Istanbul. They would go on to win the competition in the most improbable of fashions, coming back from 3-0 down against AC Milan. For his part, Mourinho led Chelsea to the Premier League title having amassed the most points ever at the time with 95, as well as conceding the fewest goals on record with just 15.

Leaving Chelsea….Then Coming Back

The following season saw Chelsea win the Premier League again, ensuring Mourinho had won a domestic title for the fourth campaign in succession. When the 2006-2007 season got underway, the press were speculating that the Portuguese super star would leave the club at the end of the season, with relations between him and Abramovich having broken down. In spite of this, they won the League Cup again but also lost to Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final for the second time. They defeated Manchester United in the FA Cup final, but the following season started poorly and Mourinho left the club in the September of 2007.

He went to Inter Milan and enjoyed success, winning an historic treble with the Italian club, which included the Champions League. He then ended up at Real Madrid, where he would break more records. Even so, he had begun to develop a reputation as being a manager who couldn’t last more than three seasons, leaving the Spanish giants at the end of the 2012-2013 season. On the third of June, Mourinho signed a contract to return to Chelsea. Remarkably, it took until the 19th of April 2014 for him to suffer his first home defeat as Chelsea manager. They finished third, with greater success to come.

In the January of 2015, Chelsea lost to League One’s Bradford in the FA Cup, but in the March they won 2-0 against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur to claim the League Cup. Despite being knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, the season was still one of success when a win over Crystal Palace saw Chelsea win the Premier League once more. Mourinho signed a new four-year contract in the August of 2015, but when Chelsea lost their ninth of 16 Premier League matches on the 17th of December 2015, Mourinho and Chelsea parted company ‘by mutual consent’. This time there would be no return.

In the years after his second departure from Chelsea, José Mourinho managed Manchester United, winning the League Cup at the end of the 2016-2017 season, as well as the UEFA Europa League in the same season. After Manchester United came Chelsea’s London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, where he failed to win anything at a football club for the first time since 2002. He was sacked on the 19th of April 2021, being appointed as the Roma manager a month later. Within a year, Mourinho had guided the Italian club to its first European final since 1991, defeating Feyenoord in the Europa Conference League. He as sacked in the January of 2024.