But whatever shape Eden Hazard, John Terry and co are in, one thing is certain. Mourinho is in top form. He is fit and focused. He has warmed up by sharpening his tongue. In the space of 36 hours, the Chelsea manager has renewed rivalries with two of his bitterest foes. The Special One has come up with some special one-liners over the years. He remains the most piercing critic of his peers. His methods may not be particularly moral, but his jibes tend to be memorable.
His attack on Rafa Benitez, with the inference the Spaniard is overweight, felt below the belt, just as he should not have branded Arsene Wenger a “voyeur” in 2005. His latest criticism of the Frenchman showed the economics graduate is not the only manager with a grasp of mathematics. Mourinho may have used the figures selectively, highlighting a period when Chelsea have tended to sell for sizeable sums, but he is correct that Arsenal’s net spend over the last two years is much higher. It is that precision, that laser accuracy, that means it is harder to believe Mourinho when he claims to be absent-minded. Everything is planned. Nothing is left to chance.
He attempted to explain last year’s seemingly disrespectful description of Manuel Pellegrini as “Mr Pellegrino” by claiming he confused the Manchester City manager’s name with that of Mauricio Pellegrino, the Argentinian defender he coached at Barcelona. Yet this is Mourinho: his mistakes tend to be deliberate. When, in 2008, he branded Claudio Ranieri a 70-year-old who had barely won anything, the Italian was only 56. It may have been humorous exaggeration, but it was also a pointed comment. Ranieri, he was suggesting, was yesterday’s man.
Ranieri’s return to the Premier League brings the possibility of further attempts to disparage him. Yet the fact he is Leicester manager may spare him. Mourinho’s victims are often his predecessors or successors at Chelsea, Inter or Real Madrid, whose records he tends to belittle while emphasising his own achievements. But more often than not they are rivals. Roberto Mancini has dropped off his radar a little; he and Inter are irrelevant to Chelsea now. If Leicester obligingly lose twice to Chelsea, Mourinho may not need to reopen old wounds.
He picks his targets carefully. He was careful to characterise Sir Alex Ferguson as the Godfather, paying tribute to the Manchester United manager rather than waging war on him. He recognised a kindred spirit. He shares Ferguson’s fondness for trying to win the argument as much as the match.
He knows he can rile others. Wenger is one, even if Mourinho appears as annoyed by the Frenchman’s inference that his is the ethical approach. The Portuguese believes his is the winning way and that matters most; hence last year’s unfair accusation that Wenger is a “specialist in failure.”
Those who believe Pellegrini is an unflappable statesmanlike figure who is unaffected by Mourinho’s mind games are severely misguided. Maybe aware he lacks his enemy’s eloquence and quick wit, the Chilean tries not to respond but he is irritated by Mourinho’s every insult. It is no exaggeration to say he hates the Chelsea manager.
He has rarely beaten him, either. Wenger never has. Mourinho’s tactics in these private battles extend from the pitch to the press conference rooms. His plan for a title defence surely involves using a psychological superiority over one manager whose spending he is highlighting and another who he implies is so insignificant he cannot correctly remember his name.
Unless Chelsea draw Real in the Champions League, Mourinho will not come face to face with Benitez. His latest outburst was part mischief-making, part score-settling. Yet while the Spaniard, like Pellegrini, lacks the ability to conjure memorable phrases or out-argue Mourinho, he has won two Champions League semi-finals against him. Benitez’s appointment at the Bernabeu brings the very real risk that he will achieve something Mourinho could not and make Real champions of Europe.
It can explain the attempt to undermine him from the start. Inter’s swift descent since Mourinho’s 2010 departure means he has an immediate retort to all those who have struggled at the San Siro in the subsequent five years. The only Chelsea manager to conquer Europe was the amiable interim, Roberto Di Matteo, five years after Mourinho’s first spell ended. His legacy at both clubs, plus Porto, is secure.
His time at Real is open to greater debate. He has unfinished business with them. He is ever more inventive in his efforts to aggravate them, whether suggesting Hazard outperformed the 61-goal Cristiano Ronaldo last season or referring to Benitez’s waistline. The words are his weapons, and he has his guns trained on the Bernabeu. Because Mourinho has a control freak’s capacity to shape proceedings all over England but he can only influence events in Spain with verbal warfare. And so, perhaps, he will. A first mention of Benitez this season might not be the last.
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