TWe must never forget that the Premier League is essentially the world's most popular soap opera. Yes, football, games are won and lost, and that's important, but alongside that there's constant drama, ridiculous plots, conspiracies and operatic farces going on. It was these two people's ideas that made soccer the world's favorite. The best melodramas need great villains, and the greatest villains are Dirty Den, Paul Robinson, his JR Ewing in football, Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho is now 60 years old, his hair white and his eyes perched above a shadowy valley. His old shit has worn a little thin. He no longer has the ability to predict the flow of the game. The game progresses and so do the players. He is unable to kindle within the team the flames of anger of an unjust avenger as he once did. He once mocked Rafa Benitez, who won the Europa League. Now he's celebrating winning the Conference League, but he was so furious at not winning last season's Europa League that he waited in the car park for referee Anthony Taylor after the final.
Mourinho is showing signs of decline, but there is still something appealing about him. Within hours of Roma sacking him on Tuesday, articles emerged claiming Newcastle had no intention of appointing him. (Just to be clear, Newcastle haven't issued a positive statement, just responded to a question, but that doesn't stop me from seeing how many journalists and social media commenters have similarly linked ) Why do we need a club backed by Saudi Arabia's vast wealth? Will the Public Investment Fund appoint a coach who hasn't been at the top of his profession for 10 years, hopefully looking up from the great hills? And yet…
Most fans may still support Eddie Howe despite his poor form. Sporting director Dan Ashworth may prefer someone closer to a tactical spearhead than the coach who brought glory to the team during the attrition era before 2019. guardiolista revolution.
But who actually makes the decisions? Newcastle haven't had to make a managerial change since Howe replaced Steve Bruce following his inevitable sacking in October 2021. So no one knows exactly who is making these statements. Mourinho's aura was enough to seduce even a president as experienced as Tottenham's Daniel Levy in 2019.Would it be so surprising if he caught the eye of Yasir al-Rumayyan and other Saudi executives, especially given his position? as an officer At the Mahd Sports Academy in Jeddah with the influential Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud and the Assistant Minister of Sports?
Moreover, there is something about Mourinho's feelings about Newcastle that feels right. It's not just because Mourinho described himself as a “little magpie” three years ago, sitting at Bobby Robson's lap, listening to him talk about the passion between the club and the fans. Mourinho's greatest successes at Porto, Chelsea and Internazionale came with clubs where he could portray himself as a rebel, an outsider fighting against the establishment. Newcastle's chief executive, Darren Eales, has written about this very club – a Newcastle that has spent a poor night cursed by the world's richest owner – and how the club is constrained by the rules of profit and sustainability. I drew it as I explained it last week.
Since taking over PIF, Newcastle seem to have embraced the dark side. The paranoid fervor of some of the more vocal fans, motivated by loyalty to the club and a global conspiracy to oppress the Geordie people, with all sorts of concerns about human rights abuses and title purchases by the state; Whining that it would look like fertile ground for a classic Mourinho pout. The coincidence of Mourinho losing his job at a time when Newcastle have lost six of their last seven league games is all too perfect.
But with Newcastle's failure – and it should be emphasized that the club are adamant that Howe's job is not in jeopardy – where will Mourinho go next? He has made little secret of the fact that he thinks he will one day become Portugal's national team manager, but it won't be until the Euros at the earliest. He has won 10 of his 10 games under manager Roberto Martinez, with a combined goal difference of 1.5. 36-2.
Which club would take him? A third stint at Chelsea only to confirm its status as a joke project as an example of the football club's best under Todd Boley and Behada Egbali? The climactic bonfire of Paris Saint-Germain's vanity? Joan Laporta's triumphant return to Barcelona makes him an appointment that Pep Guardiola did not make in 2008, adding salt to the turf that led to 15 years of world domination. Adjust position?
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The problem is that there are very few options that don't immediately sound interesting that you want to see but don't want to happen in your club. Roma was a bit different from other recent jobs, given that Mourinho remained popular with fans until the end, and his toxicity was relatively limited, but it still followed a familiar pattern. There was: the momentum immediately upon his arrival and the immediate euphoria that perhaps brought about early success. His performance deteriorates and friction with his team and coach increases before his final meltdown.
The maximum value will be a little lower for each job. Taking into account the lack of resources, it seems unbecoming of a manager who once fought with God to claim sixth place in Serie A and celebrate it as a victory.
So, where next? Mourinho doesn't need money. A recent study ranks him as the richest coach in the world. Net worth approximately 100 million pounds. Rather, he is filled with resentment and a need to prove that he was right in rejecting Barcelona's principles and turning his back on pressing and possession in favor of a radically reactive approach when he was rejected by the club in 2008. Seems to be driven by sex.
But to do that, he needs his stage to achieve the final big victory. The clubs that could attract him, the ones that can afford him, probably don't want him. Logic offers a stint in the Saudi Pro League, but the Premier League's epic melodrama story demands that the Magpies fly to St James's to do one last job for Sir Bobby.
