All is not well for Mourinho and Real Madrid

The marriage between the world’s greatest club and the world’s most successful club manager seemed to be perfect for both parties when it happened in May 2010. For Mourinho, it was a way to extend his legacy and conquer world beaters Barcelona on home turf and for Real Madrid, it was a way to knock Barcelona off their perch and become Spain’s best once again. However, all is not well for Mourinho in Madrid as issues with the board and Barcelona’s continuing run of setting La Liga on fire have left his mission in jeopardy.

Perhaps the most inspirational moment of last year was Mourinho’s Inter Milan beating Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League semi final and denying the Catalans a date at their rival’s home ground in the competition’s final. And it was because Mourinho had unlocked the secret to beating Barcelona after so many have tried and failed that he was brought on board at Madrid. The skeptics were critical of the move right from the start as being Real Madrid manager is the toughest job in the world with the board constantly interfering with selection and transfer decisions and the supporters critical of anything but winning matches by ‘hockey score’ margins. These limitations have not gone down well with Mourinho who believes that everything in a team must revolve around the manager.

TEAM SELECTION AND TRANSFER HINDRANCE

Reports of rifts between Mourinho and the Real Madrid director general Jorge Valdano have been growing in intensity as Mourinho’s move to bring in a new striker during the transfer window to replace the injured Gonzalo Higuain has been blocked by the board due to their favouritism towards Karim Benzema, who has not made the cut in his manager’s eyes. Benzema has not featured extensively in the Portuguese tactician’s plans and whenever the striker has been left on the bench, the board has lashed out publicly against the manager. Mind you, Mourinho famously left out Mario Balotelli out of his plans at Inter Milan as he felt the striker’s egotistic attitude stood in the way of the team’s success despite Super Mario being billed as Italy’s brightest young talent. For such a perfectionist who likes everything done his way and only his way, the constant interference from the board has been a thorn in his path with Mourinho increasingly looking dejected and not committing his long term future to the club.

Jorge Valdano, backed heavily by Florentino Perez, has constantly interfered with Mourinho's methods

THE BACKFIRING MOURINHO EFFECT

Precisely at this stage of the season, Barcelona had scored 49 goals in their last campaign. This season, they have scored 62 with 26 of them coming in the last 7 matches (That’s 3.7 goals per match). By scoring goals for fun, Barcelona are setting La Liga on fire. It’s not that Real have not improved compared to last season. As Gerry Armstrong rightly pointed out, “Real Madrid have come up to the bar set by Barcelona last season and passed it. But Barcelona have now raised the bar even higher”. This can be attributed to ‘the Mourinho effect’ which seems to have worked more in Barcelona’s favour than Real Madrid’s. For Barcelona, there will nothing sweeter than winning the league by beating a Real Madrid team coached by their great adversary who denied them a date with history last season and thus rubbing salt in his wounds. This seems to have fired up them up as they are currently decimating every team in Spain through their spell-binding style of play, which every La Liga follower would testify by saying that he/she is fortunate to be witnessing one of the world’s greatest teams of all time in action. And to stop such an unstoppable force, it really does take a gargantuan immovable object.

Mourinho's team faces an uphill task in beating Barcelona for the title

Getting a thrashing in the Clasico and earning a draw against lowly Almeria leave Real Madrid effectively 4 points off Barcelona. Pundits are already saying that the league is over as even if Real beat Barca in the Clasico in April(which is a big ‘if’), a point will still separate them as the Catalans are unlikely to lose to any team in their current form. With odds stacked against them, Mourinho and his team face an uphill task in the league. It’s not impossible for them to become champions but highly difficult. But again, this kind of a challenge is something right up Mourinho’s alley, considering his illustrious record. This time though, it looks like it’s going to be too much for him to handle .