say it
for the record i am a fan of mourinho as well
Pretty sure I've told you this before, but my friend is a soccer journalist and statistician in the UK (a proper one who makes actual good money from doing it, not a blogger and Twitter gobshite) and is well connected with a lot of clubs and managers.
He told me a story a bunch of years ago that he had been given first hand from the manager of Wycombe Wanderers (I think) when Mourinho was the Chelsea manager, and they played Wycombe at Stamford Bridge in the 3rd round of the Cup. This was back in the days when Chelsea were all conquering and they had players like Drogba, Essien, Lampard and Terry at the height of their powers, and Wycombe were a nobody fourth division team.
First of all, as soon as the draw was announced the Wycombe guy received a call the following day at his office from Mourinho personally, inviting him to bring his team down to Stamford Bridge the day before to have a training session on the pitch so that they could get used to the stadium and its scale (most players at that level would never have played in a stadium like that and likely never would again), and asking him if there was anything else that they would like. While it's normal for the host club to provide assistance to the visitors, it's not normal for the first team manager to do it and particularly not one who is supposed to be concentrating on the Premier League and Champions League campaigns, and there's certainly no requirement to go out of your way to help the opposition to be more prepared for match day.
On the day of the game, Mourinho played a semi-reserve team (likely still full of internationals and stars each of whom probably made more per week than the entire Wycombe starting XI) and got the expected result - something like a 5-0 or 6-0 victory. What was really special was post game, as the Wycombe players were back in the locker room getting changed. There's a knock at the door, the coaches have a quick word with whoever is there, then open it up and let Mourinho in. "Lads, Jose Mourinho wants to talk with you all." Jose proceeds to give a ten minute speech congratulating them all on their performance, picking out individual players for the things they did well and identifying things they could work on to become better. He then invites them all to come to the players bar after they've changed to have a drink with him and his team, and when they get there he has told his entire squad, even the global megastars who weren't in the team that day, to be in the bar to have a drink with their counterparts. He then took the manager aside and handed him a thick dossier of all their scouting reports - even though he could have picked any eleven players from his squad and sent them out there with no instructions and still have won at a canter, he'd respected them enough to send his scouts to watch Wycombe, identify their danger men and their tactics, and how to best counter them. To hand that information over is pretty much unheard of, for a fourth division coach to get that kind of intelligence and feedback from a top European head coach is the kind of help you just can't buy.
Jose Mourinho is a lover of the game and a true sportsman who understands and respects what makes it great, and he is a class act.
