Jose Mourinho Or Carlo Ancelotti: Who has been the Better Manager of the Last Decade?

One couldn’t make the cut as a football player, dropped out of school and worked as a translator, rising through the football-management ranks. The other dominated his generation of playmakers, retired after an illustrious career, and began managing the Italian elite in no time. One's plenty wise, slightly crack, and full of wisecracks. The other's shrewd, flexible and loves his Parma ham. One has a car in his name, the other employs a bus in his game. Jose Mourinho And Carlo Ancelotti may not be remotely similar, but they are the best managers in world football right now.Who's the better of the two then? Read on to find out:

#1 Trophies won

Winning is the raison d'etre of any coach. Therefore, the best yardstick of his success is his trophies. Let's look at which of the two has won more silverware over the last decade.

Below is a comprehensive analysis of the trophies won by Mourinho and Ancelotti using a point-based grading system:

Jose Mourinho

Champions League: 5 pts.

Champions League Trophies: 2003-04, 2009-10.

Domestic league title: 3 pts.

Primeira Liga: 2003-04.

Premier League: 2004-05, 2005-06.

Serie A: 2008-09, 2009-10.

La Liga: 2011-12.

Domestic cup & other continental competitions: 2 pts.

FA Cup: 2006-07.

League Cup: 2004-05, 2006-07.

FA Community Shield: 2005.

Coppa Italia: 2009-10.

Supercoppa Italiana: 2008.

Copa Del Rey: 2010-11

Supercopa De Espana: 2012.

Gross Trophies Won: 16.

Final score: 44.

Carlo Ancelotti

Champions League: 5 pts.

Champions League Trophies: 2002-03, 2006-07, 2013-14.

Domestic league titles: 3 points

Ligue 1: 2012-13.

Premier League: 2009-10.

Serie A: 2003-04.

Domestic cup & other continental competitions: 2 pts.

FA Cup: 2009-10.

FA Community Shield: 2009.

Supercoppa Italiana: 2004.

Copa Del Rey: 2013-14.

UEFA Super Cup: 2007, 2014.

FIFA Club World Cup: 2007.

Gross Trophies Won: 12.

Final Score: 33.

A haul of 12 trophies in 10 seasons is not exiguous by any stretch of the imagination, but does seem quite pale in comparison with Mourinho's loot of 16. While the two are neck and neck in terms of European and domestic success, the difference proves to be Mourinho's dominance in the league. He has won the league 6 times over the last decade, tasting success from the get-go in three of the four countries he has managed teams in.

All of this means that Ancelotti, despite winning the most Champions League trophies (three) in the history of the competition- which is no mean feat- remains well behind Mourinho in this regard.

Winner: Jose Mourinho

#2 Quality of opposition and big games

Both Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti have plied their trade in Europe's better divisions: the Serie A, the English Premier League and the La Liga.

Jose Mourinho

Mourinho staged his rise to recognition in his homeland-Portugal. He breezed through two seasons, bullying minnows with consummate ease, but the real test would come down to his ability to recreate this success on the continental stage. He led Porto to a UEFA Cup victory over Celtic and subsequently captured the big fish- the Champions League, overcoming giants the likes of Manchester United, Monaco and Lyon in the process.

Therefore, by the time Mourinho moved to Chelsea, he was not only an accomplished tactician, but also a big-game manager, capable of pipping managers of equal stature. This characteristic of Mourinho is if anything, only more apparent today; look no further than his ruthless demolitions against derby rivals Milan and Arsenal over the years. All this has made the Special One one of the best big-game managers ever, as Gary Neville puts it.

However, one of Mourinho's greatest inadequacies as a manager was his recurring failure against Barcelona. He beat the Catalans only four times out of sixteen- a dismal record. This remains the only blip on Mourinho's big-match record, which otherwise, shines flawlessly.

Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti enjoyed a fruitful spell at Milan, beating local and national nemeses Inter Milan and Juventus respectively on a number of occasions. But the fact that he did lose to them on a fair number of occasions makes his remarkable tenure at Italy nothing noteworthy in this respect.

Similar was his stint at Chelsea, where he floundered against the Elite- Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool repeatedly, exploiting the smaller teams in the league. Carlo Ancelotti saw through a decent spell in France, winning the Ligue 1 in his first and only full season at PSG, but the Ligue 1 is not known for cut-throat competition or challenging opposition, is it?

One season into his reign at Real, Ancelotti seems to be doing fairly decently. He has fared much better than Mourinho against Barcelona, which pulls him back some rope. However, if there's one thing that's defined Ancelotti's performances in big games, it is his Champions League resolve. No team can even dream of beating FC Hollywood 5-0 on aggregate, but Ancelotti's done it. In fact, he has never lost a game to the Bavarians (five wins, two draws in seven games).

While Ancelotti's exploits against Ze Germans are indeed incredible, they are pale in comparison with Mourinho's arsenal of achievements. When the going gets tough, Mourinho smacks his lips, (gets his sixteen-wheeler keys and license) and gets going.

Round Winner: Jose Mourinho

#3 Blemishes

Mourinho is undeniably one of the most egotistical personalities in the world, let alone in football. He has, over the course of the past decade, fallen out with more players than you can shake a stick at, the most prominent being Iker Casillas.

Not only did the Special One dethrone, deride and destroy one of the most celebrated goalkeepers of all time for ‘tactical reasons’ (read he didn’t like him), he also began to drop other players at the drop of a spat (Sergio Ramos and Pepe were relegated to the bench following arguments with him)- something that reflects a complete lack of professionalism. The Casillas debacle at Real Madrid is only the tip of the iceberg that is Mourinho though.

For a man who pokes other managers in the eye and labels them voyeurs, incenses fans with obscene gestures and sulphurous remarks, lambastes the media at every opportunity he gets and even defies the officials with his constant infringements of the law (both on and off the field), being embraced by any section of the society is, indeed a futile task.

As the journalist of the Mirror puts it, Mourinho is the human equivalent of Marmite. He leaves a bad taste in the mouth. And while that does not in any way make him a bad manager, the fact that incidents such as the Casillas one have affected the team’s performance and morale is unacceptable.

Ancelotti keeps a clean sheet here. He does not have any glaring foibles as such and the only time he did get ruffled, lose his composure and say something distasteful, it was directed at Mourinho, ironically.

Round Winner: Carlo Ancelotti

#4 Unique selling point and conclusion

Mourinho’s efficiency & efficacy

“I am Jose Mourinho and I don’t change. I arrive with all my qualities and defects.” What good can come of a man so full of himself, you must wonder? After all, if he’s not willing to adapt to his surroundings, how can the very question of succeeding arise?

150 games unbeaten at home in the league from Portugal through England through Italy to Spain, a debut-season league title followed by another the next season in every country (except Spain) he’s managed in, ten consecutive years with at least one piece of silverware; these are the credentials of a man who doesn’t possess an iota of modesty or an inkling of flexiblity. Not only does our aforementioned question arise, it also gets a resounding response- Jose Mourinho has been a monumental success.

He may have bats in his belfry but he is as efficient and effective as Swiss-clockwork. One of Mourinho's more-favoured methods over the years has been what we infamously term as "parking the bus".

Conceded, it may not be the prettiest of methods or even the cleanest, but what matters is that it is immensely effective (you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, haven't you?). And this tactic is what best sizes up Jose: he has no inhibitions about parking a bus, or even getting his hands in dirt, for, he must win, at any cost. And that is why he is immensely effective and incredibly efficient.

Ancelotti's versatility and flexibility

At the other end of our spectrum is a man who is more concerned about the means than the end result. Therefore, the fact that the end result favours him 82% of the time is an added bonus to this http://www.transfermarkt.com/carlo-ancelotti/profil/trainer/523.

Au contraire to the uppity Mourinho, who has very smugly stated time and again that his team would have to change to suit his needs and not vice versa, Ancelotti is a mould, willing to take whatever shape and approach as his players- and milieu, in general- demand. This selflessness transcends into his managing style, which is characterized by flexibility.

On-the-move tactical tweaks, dynamic position-changes, outrageously ingenious formation-switches: evident from his utilisation of Angel Di Maria as a pseudo-box-to-box midfielder and his adoption of the 4-4-2 formation when plagued by injury in the Champions League last season.

Carlo Ancelotti is a strong believer in the "The journey is the reward" school of life, and possibly one of the only practitioners of this concept in the footballing fraternity.

Conclusion:

So, which is the better Unique Selling Point-Mourinho's cold efficiency or Ancelotti's warm adjustability?

This argument boils down to one of life's most-deliberated conundrums- Journey or result? Carlo Ancelotti anthropomorphizes everything that the journey is and Mourinho the result.

My vast reserves of wisdom tell me that on account of Mourinho's complete disregard towards the journey and Ancelotti's not-half-shabby results, we have a victor (not Anichebe or Ibarbo or Moses):

Better Manager: Jose Mourinho

Better Man: Carlo Ancelotti