When he was first appointed manager of Chelsea, José Mourinho strode into his unveiling press conference and held the Premier League in his hand. It was spellbinding. It remains the most charismatic briefing I have ever attended.
Twenty years later and Ruben Amorim showed that he can be a Mourinho for the modern age. Maybe not the “Special One” but, as he put it, the right one. And that would be pretty special for Manchester United who have appointed six permanent managers since they last won the league title.
Amorim does not like being labelled “Mourinho 2.0” – “Mourinho is one person, I’m another coach. They are two entirely different stories,” he protested, even if it was said with a smile – but the comparison is compelling.
No pressure there, then, with that statement. Especially given Mourinho arrived having won the Champions League with Porto, inheriting a Chelsea squad that had only been denied the Premier League title by Arsenal’s Invincibles and at a club enjoying Roman Abramovich’s first flush of extraordinary spending and unfettered by the constraints of Financial Fair Play.
United, this United, are evidently a very different proposition. And not least because they sit 13th in the league having lost as many matches as they have won, while stumbling through an unconvincing Europa League campaign, with players shorn of confidence – a club still in search of a post-Sir Alex Ferguson identity. Even more than a decade on.
And yet. When Amorim took his seat in the Jimmy Murphy building at United’s Carrington training ground – as opposed to Mourinho in one of the large banqueting suites at Stamford Bridge with the photographers’ flashes and razzmatazz – it was impossible not to cast the mind back.
Amorim is 39 – just two years younger than Mourinho was when he pitched up in England – and is the rising star of European coaching with buckets of charm. He is also a winner. Like other Portuguese coaches, he regards Mourinho as the standard-bearer. Amorim was still a teenager, relaunching his playing career as a midfielder with Belenenses – having been released by Benfica (who would later re-sign him) – when Mourinho spoke all those years ago and he recalled it. Like Mourinho, communication is arguably his greatest strength.
“He shows we can be the best in the world and this is something different in a small country, this can put a stamp on everybody,” Amorim said.
‘I am the right person in this moment’
“But I’m different from Mourinho, I’m a different person but I remember that time. You look at Mourinho and you felt he can win everywhere. It’s not the same thing, he was European champion, I’m not European champion!
“But I’m a different guy in a different moment, football nowadays is different and I think I am the right person in this moment.
“I am a young guy, I understand the players, so I try to use that to help my players like Mourinho did in that era at Chelsea. If you remember the young guys like [Frank] Lampard, these kinds of players, nowadays it’s so much different and I think I am the right guy in this moment.”
Back then Mourinho was also the “right guy”, maybe a bit brasher but not the more cynical character who eventually managed United. A vibrant young man who the likes of Lampard and John Terry craved to learn from and win alongside.
The most memorable moment from Mourinho’s press conference, of course, came when he was asked whether he was a modern manager. “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one,” he declared.
There was no such single soundbite from Amorim and there did not need to be. It does not have to be about words, although United do need a manager with the personality and drive to carry the club. At last they seem to have found one.
Instead for Amorim there was a succession of confident remarks around the general theme of being the right person for the job – and a dash of added warmth as he talked about maybe being a “dreamer”. It felt like the right kind of combination to carry United.
Plus there was an edge. Amorim, it is said by those who know him, does not seek out confrontation in the way that Mourinho did. And not least because the effectiveness of that approach, like Mourinho’s more defensive-first football, belonged to a different era. But behind the broadest of smiles there were clear messages that Amorim has a sharp tongue and a ruthlessness.
After stating “I believe in these players” there was a little more salt to mix with that sugar.
‘I choose always 100 per cent our way’
United simply do not work hard enough – “we have to be better at running back,” Amorim said, making the unambiguous distinction between a team happy to go forward but not one willing to do the tough yards to get back.
Style of play? Amorim nodded when it was put to him that there is more than one way. But it was followed by: “As a coach you have to choose one way or another. I choose always 100 per cent our way.” So it is his way or the highway.
Then there were his thoughts on recruitment. Yes, it was a collegiate approach. But there was a non-negotiable: “The final word should be the manager”. And Amorim, whatever his head coach title, regards himself as a manager. The boss.
The Mourinho story is inevitable. Especially for Portuguese coaches. André Villas-Boas once joked that maybe he would be the “s— one” when he was ill-fatedly appointed by Chelsea and there is that photograph taken six years ago which shows Amorim visiting Carrington as part of a week-long internship. He and Mourinho have their arms around each other’s shoulders and Mourinho has texted his congratulations to the now former Sporting coach on his appointment.
Amorim, though, is emphatically his own man. It is there in what he has achieved and what he said. He is not a Mourinho 2.0. But he may be a Next Gen José.
