Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid, it would’ve sounded good two decades ago, now… Well, a little bonkers.
Florentino Perez has agreed a deal to announce Mourinho as his next head coach once he wins the club’s presidential elections on June 7th.
He comes off an unbeaten season in Portugal with Benfica, but it was also trophyless, and resulted in a third-place finish without Champions League football.
Previous to that he was at Fenerbahce, and similarly didn’t lift a title, and went full conspiracy theorist towards Galatasaray and referees.
In fact, in the last nine years, Mourinho has won just one title, the Conference League at Roma, with his previous successes in 2017 at Manchester United.
It’s long been said that Mourinho changed at Madrid, something went wrong during his fallout with the squad, and it’s never been corrected.
Mourinho’s first Real Madrid stint
To understand just how much has changed, Mourinho signed in 2010 as arguably the most Galactico coach in the history of the most Galactico club.
Perez had returned in 2009 and conducted a summer transfer window that saw him bring in Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema.
However, there was an issue in the dugout, as Manuel Pellegrini signed with Mourinho opting to stay at Inter Milan, a decision that proved historic.
The Portuguese won his second Champions League, but as part of a European treble, downing Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona at their peak on the way to the final, meaning Perez would do anything to get the coach in.
Mourinho’s first season was good, but not good enough by his or Madrid’s standards.
Second in the league and in the Champions League semi-finals, Real won the Copa del Rey via Barca, enough to paper over the cracks.
But it was the next season where he proved his worth – Real finally ended Barca’s dominance, not only beating them to LaLiga, but doing it in historic fashion with a jaw-dropping 121 goals and 100 points.
That was paired with another Champions League semi-final exit, but all signs suggested we were at peak Mourinho, and were going to stay there.
Mourinho’s Barcelona obsession takes over
However, in his third season, as has become the trend, his intensity and methods wore off in stunning style.
His constant ratcheting up of tension started to damage how much the squad respected him.
It started in his first season when he brought up a conspiracy relating to Barcelona and referees.
“I don’t know if it is the Unicef sponsorship or if it is because they are nice guys. I don’t understand,” he said.
“Congratulations to Barcelona on being a great team and congratulations for all the other stuff you have which must be very hard to achieve. They have power and we have no chance.”
Then, in the Spanish Super Cup at the start of the next season, came the eye poke of Guardiola’s assistant Tito Vilanova – not exactly harbouring a siege mentality for his players, but instead leaving them thinking he was rather pathetic.
Despite all that, Mourinho signed an extension until 2016 in the summer of 2012, and that may well have been where the trouble lied.
Dressing room enemies bring down Mourinho
As he continually depended on the hate of Barcelona for his success, Spain were at their very best with three-straight tournament wins, and discontent began rumbling behind the scenes from two key men.
Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos were key in ending national team tensions, teaming up with Xavi and Carles Puyol to end the hate and take Spain to the top for the first time.
This drew anger from Mourinho, though, and it wasn’t long before the coach and his captains were accused of briefing to the media against each other.
Fast-forward to 2026 and the tensions remain – Casillas has said he doesn’t want Mourinho’s to come back, and even joined Enrique Riquelme’s campaign against Perez.
“I think he’s a great professional, but I don’t want him at Real Madrid,” – Iker Casillas.
That’s because if and when the Portuguese does return, Casillas likely won’t even be allowed in the Bernabeu.
At the time of Mourinho’s first stint souring, he was dating TV reporter Sara Carbonero and was accused of leaking team line-ups and details that ended up on her programmes.
Casillas was eventually dropped from the line-up, and for fans it became a case of team Mourinho or team Casillas.
In the midst of all of this, Mourinho’s biggest enemy, Pep Guardiola, called it a day at the time of his contract extension.
Mourinho, therefore, had his edge taken from him, and those unhappy in the dressing room capitalised.
His final season saw just a Supercopa, while in the league Madrid were humiliated by Guardiola’s replacement, the late Vilanova – winning the tile by a record 15 points.
A Copa del Rey final loss at the Bernabeu to Atletico Madrid was the final nail in the coffin, and it was goodbye ‘Mou’.
The coach and Perez called the decision mutual, but ‘unavoidable’ perhaps would’ve been a better adjective for his departure.
Mourinho would later join Chelsea and win a Premier League, but he was a changed man from his time in Spain.
He even managed to fall out with club greats John Terry and Frank Lampard, and he would take his over-intensity to Manchester United.
There he won three lesser titles and became increasingly nasty and disliked in a country where was previously idiolised.
A Covid switch to long-time rivals Tottenham was just bizarre, and while he became a hero at Roma and showed signs of simmering down, his nasty side came back at Fenerbahce with conspiracy theories and physical alterations.
As such, it’s hard for Madrid fans to get excited, with a recent poll from Marca seeing 79% of fans vote against his hiring.
But, as is the case with Mourinho, perhaps Perez has lost his edge too.
His Alonso hire didn’t work out, and neither did Arbeloa.
Two seasons without a major trophy and a refusal to hire any sort of sporting director to help his selections, Perez’s siege mentality is in full flow, so desperate to be ruthless he’s ignored Mourinho’s appalling criticism of Vinicius Jr for a throw of the dice.
Fans aren’t happy, and it’s easy to see why, Perez’s final throws are starting to mirror Mourinho’s back in 2013 that ended in disaster.
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