Yesterday Chelsea and Jose Mourinho secured the Premier League title, and noticeably it was Mourinho's third title in his 4 years at Chelsea, a magnificent achievement. Chelsea hadn't won the Premier League for 4 years previous to this campaign, but we all knew that Mourinho wouldn't fail in his second stint at the club. After all he has already achieved in management, where does he rank in the greatest managers of all time? Is he close to being mentioned in the same breathe as the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson? And whats next for Mourinho? Will he continue his Chelsea Legacy?
Throughout his career Mourinho has won a trophy every 34 games in management. He has won league titles in 4 different European countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy and England, and this truly reflects how talented a manager Mourinho is. Not many top managers can say they have managed to achieve what he has achieved, and in so many different leagues. If you look at the likes of Arsene Wenger, one of the greatest managers of all time, although he rightfully has this status, if you look at the average honours won for years in management he is not even close to the achievements of Jose Mourinho. That is why for me, there is only one manager that Mourinho can be compared with; Sir Alex Ferguson. People may say, that Ferguson only won things in the UK, and never tested his ability abroad, but people are quick to forget that he won the Scottish first division with Aberdeen, and also the European Cup with Aberdeen. Could Mourinho match this achievement? For me no, but then again times are arguably different in the modern football world.
As I have mentioned success in the game of football is measured on the amount of trophies that you obtain. Sir Alex Ferguson won 49 major honours in his 39 years in management, that's an average of 1.3 trophies every season, over a near 40 year period. If you compare these means to Jose Mourinho's haul, he has won 17 trophies in 13 years of management, and that also equates to 1.3 trophies per year. They share the same trophy success rate, but then again there is no way one can guarantee that Mourinho will be able to continue this rate of trophies for years to come. If you look at each of their individual attributes they are also very similar, however I feel that Ferguson has better man management skills. He treated his players who respected his authority as if they where family. Cristiano Ronaldo once said that Ferguson "was like a father to me" when reflecting on his time at Old Trafford. I'm not sure Mourinho has the same man management skills, at the different clubs he has been at he has always caused huge amounts of friction between the squad's he's worked with, at Real Madrid he dropped a number of players who have been at the club for years and who are always certain starters; Casilias and Ramos. This caused a lot of the team to become unhappy with Mourinho and eventually was a big factor in him leaving the Spanish giants.
What you are guaranteed with both managers is success. They both truly live and breathe it, and it is very hard to say one is better than the other, especially as Ferguson had such a lengthy career. Can Mourinho reach the heights that Sir Alex Ferguson reached? I think he can, if he continues to build successful team after team, because this was another great thing about Ferguson, he was always able to build different and successful teams through the generations he managed. Another factor to consider is how competitive the Premier League will be next season and for seasons ahead. After a world cup year, the Premier League is known to take a bit of a dip, and teams can win the league without being brilliant throughout the campaign. Chelsea have been very good, but teams around them have been poor, Arsenal, Man City, Man United and Liverpool have hardly put up a fight, but next year they will become stronger and it will be so much harder for Chelsea to retain their title. Sir Alex Ferguson also dominated for a number of years at a time, he is still the only manager ever to win the league 3 times on the bounce, and in a truly competitive and tough league this is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. But if anyone can do this I believe it is Mourinho, and people say that their football is boring, and it may be quite dull to watch on times, but they get results, no one looks like being able to stop them, and when they want to win, they do. However as I've said previously next season will be a whole different challenge for Mourinho and his men, teams will be stronger around them, more organised and more tactically aware that they were this year. We are in for one hell of a good season next year!
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