Mourinho has big task at Bernabeu

The rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid will only intensify this season because of their two coaches. Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho represents one of the most intriguing battles in football. The pair hold a mutual esteem and have much in common, with both being relatively young (Guardiola is 40, Mourinho 47) and renowned for their good looks and sartorial elegance. They play the media to their advantage and command absolute respect and admiration from their charges. They are also winners.

They worked at Camp Nou in the late 1990s when Mourinho was assistant to Bobby Robson, the then Barca manager. That role has long been derided in Catalonia as a mere "translator" - an unfair label for the voracious learner who was excelling in his football education. Unlike Guardiola, Mourinho was never a top player who could enter football's higher coaching echelons and so he had to work his way up.

Real's legions are convinced that Mourinho is the man who can successfully challenge Barca's hegemony and put them back on the same path which led them to dominate European football in the 1950s and win the competition three times between 1998 and 2002. Pitifully for a club of their stature, Madrid have failed to get beyond the first knockout stage in each of the last six seasons. Mourinho's motivation in leaving Inter Milan, a team he led to the Champions League title, was that: "I want to become the only coach to win the Champions League with three different clubs."

He will be paid ?10 million (Dh46.7m) a year after tax, making him football's highest-paid coach as he chases Real's elusive 10th European Cup. They have won the competition more times than any other club, but winning the Primera Liga will be just as important, for as Barca's Gerard Pique said: "The first priority of Barca and Madrid is always to win the league title. Everything else is a bonus." Guardiola won the league and the Champions League in his first season as Barca coach and also won both as a player. That he is overseeing an established, settled and successful side makes Barca slight favourites. For Barca, this campaign is about continuity and fending off the challenge from their greatest rivals who pushed them, but who they beat home and away last season.

Guardiola mixes discipline with cutting his players enough slack to gain their respect. Fall foul of his regime by turning up late for training too many times and you will be sidelined. The team is bigger than any individual and he has been strong enough to cast aside world class talents like Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o. Mourinho is doing his dirty work now. He has already closed a room which hangers-on and players' mates used while the squad trained and replaced it with a quiet zone for players to spend time relaxing after training. The media are no longer invited to travel with the team to games as Mourinho attempts to plug the leaks which have sprung from Real's dressing room for years.

Mourinho has taken control of that dressing room. For too long, the real power at the Bernabeu lay with a coterie of senior players. If his work at Porto, Chelsea and Inter is anything to go by, the remaining players will defer completely to their coach and want to do anything for him. Mourinho has also made it clear to Florentino Perez, the Real president, that he alone picks the team. Perez needs Mourinho more than the Portuguese Special One needs Real. Overcoming Barca is a tough task, but if anyone can get the best from Real's expensively assembled world class talents then it will be Mourinho, doing it resolutely his way.

sports@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”