Should Mourinho stay or go?

There is no doubt about it, managing a club like Real Madrid, seems to be like no other job in football, where what might look like the team itself has been having, up until now, a successful season, first in La Liga, record number of points for the Champion League group stage and a seven point league advantage over the best team in the World and fiercest rivals, FC Barcelona, there are still doubts over the work that José Mourinho has done at the club since he took over. So, given the history of Real Madrid being a club to take strange decisions, Del Bosque and Capello spring to mind, how long will it be that Mourinho himself either says enough is enough or the President Florentino Perez, starts to listen to the fans who recently were calling for his head, and lets another high profile manager go through the gates of the Santiago Bernabéu.

It seems that the supporters of Real Madrid seem a bunch who are difficult to please, but are they correct in being so? Well, yes, if the history of the club is looked at, with thirty one leagues and nine Champions Leagues won throughout its history, then yes success is something which the fans at Real Madrid are accustomed to, but if you look at the amount of titles they have won in their recent era, then the criticism of Mourinho and the team cannot be seen as just.

Remember this is a team where managers were coming and going left, right and center and Mourinho is the first manager since Del Bosque (1999 – 2002) who has stayed at the club for more than one season, an amazing fact and the constant change of managers at a football team can only mean one thing! They did not win trophies, although with Real Madrid this is not always the case, again Bosque and Capello sit on the tip of the tongue.

Mourinho, in his first season won the Copa del Rey, and looks on course to win the League this season, taking into account the points difference they have, and the lack of competitively in the Spanish league at the moment. Yes, the games against FC Barcelona are a minus, but in the most recent clasico, Mourinho played his strongest attacking team and easily matched FC Barcelona in that one and for most of the match dominated, so maybe the tide will be about to change in that perspective. Mourinho is an accomplished, intelligent and successful manager, and you don’t have the successes he has had throughout Europe by being nobody´s fool or as they say in Spanish ´No tener pelo de tonto´.

The fans in Real Madrid have to be careful, as shown before, when things are not going how Mourinho wants, he will easily leave when he wants, but if they want him to stay then I can see this Real Madrid team forming to become Spanish Champions and Champion’s League winners in what remains of his four year contract with “Los Merengues”.

One thing is for sure, for Madrid to regain the past glories, they need Mourinho, more than He needs them, and well, what is Madrid’s loss, will ultimately be a big club in England’s gain.

Published in Total Football Magazine the 26/2/2012 -  http://www.totalfootballmag.com/features/world-football/should-mourinho-stay-or-go/