With almost anybody else, you might reckon Jose Mourinho could use an extra friend at the moment. But then with Mourinho’s battles, his apparently eager search for enmities new and old, you never feel quite sure of whether he finds friends more useful than the energy of constant friction.
Already this season he has fallen out with his Chelsea medical staff, with fellow managers, and nagged his players noisily.
Tuesday night he cannot help but be among thousands of admirers. Mourinho achieved more for Porto, who host Chelsea at the Dragao, than any coach this century, his legacy there a Uefa Champions League, a Uefa Cup and a collection of domestic trophies.
Porto made Mourinho’s name, had him believe in himself as a “Special One”, and several of the many players who raised their standards during his time in charge there, from 2002 to 2004, left Porto in exchange for large sums of money that helped the club consolidate its position as a consistently powerful European middleweight.
There was never much doubt Mourinho was a temporary “Portista”, passing through on the motor of his ambition. He is from Setubal, south of Lisbon; he had coached Benfica, Porto’s rivals, previously and briefly, and came to regard the acclaim he heard from the northern club as flattering, but insufficiently challenging. Porto, he said on first joining Chelsea, 11 years ago, was a place where he had a “beautiful blue chair, the Uefa Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me. If I stayed there and lost 10 matches and didn’t win another Champions League people would still trust me and think I am the best”.
The Porto who currently sit top of the Portuguese league may only dream of winning another Champions League, but might yet provide a stiffer challenge than reputation suggests against the Chelsea who sit 15th in the English Premier League after seven matches of their defence of the domestic title. Both teams drew 2-2 at the weekend, and the manager of the London club who came back from two goals down to scrape a point against Newcastle United criticised his players afterwards.
Mourinho left his captain, John Terry, out of the starting team at Newcastle, and would not, at the weekend, confirm Terry being restored to the line-up against Porto.
Among those in the Porto side will be a man who recognises that phenomenon. When Mourinho excluded Iker Casillas from the Real Madrid team in late 2012, in the middle of the Portuguese coach’s second season in the capital of Spain, it was the start of a long drawn-out froideur between Mourinho and one of Spanish football’s greatest players. Casillas ended up on the bench for most of the rest of that campaign, demoted below a winter signing, Diego Lopez. He remained Spain’s captain, Madrid’s official captain and somewhat bewildered by the fact that the best part of 13 years keeping goal for Real had been so rudely interrupted by Mourinho.
Their reunion grabs attention. For a period, their relationship became a saga. “There were some sleepless nights,” Casillas recently said of that time. “The coach and I had some differences, some ups and downs.” According to Joaquin Hernandez, father of the former Barcelona midfielder, Xavi, who is a long-time friend of Casillas, the fact that Xavi and Casillas consulted to protect the atmosphere around the Spain national team, where they were senior players, when antagonism between Mourinho’s Madrid and rivals Barcelona turned toxic had displeased Mourinho.
Casillas would recover his first-team place at Madrid, but only once Mourinho left. His relationship with the club he had joined as a schoolboy was left damaged. At times, the crowd at the Bernabeu had divided between those lauding the demoted keeper, and those answering with chants in favour of Mourinho. Casillas continued to attract some whistles even when, under Carlo Ancelotti, he was fully restored as Madrid’s No 1.
His departure last summer had become inevitable. Errors seemed to pepper his game more than they had previously. Porto offered a new lease of life. Some strong saves in the match against Benfica 11 days ago gained him approval from Portistas, and he was not at fault for either goal in the surprise draw with Moreirense at the weekend.
Casillas will greet Mourinho with civility as he makes his 152nd Champions League appearance, determined to show that, at 34, his reflexes are still sharp, and ought never to have been doubted.
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