Still the special one?
Jose Mourinho is one of the most successful football managers in the history of the sport, but over the course of the last 10 years the Portuguese tactician has built something of a reputation that suggests he can never go the distance at a football club. And, much like we’re now seeing at Roma, the 60-year-old coach is capable of great success but also seems to run out of steam in his third season with a team.
Indeed, Mourinho brought the Stadio Olimpico back to full capacity and helped Roma win their first European title since 1961 with success in the UEFA Europa Conference League. However, following a difficult start to the new season following just three wins from eight league games, Sky Sports Italia are now reporting that the Serie A side have opted not to renew Mourinho’s contract and allow him to leave the club at the end of the season. Once again, it would seem as though the “Special One” has seen initial joy turn to unequivocal failure in the space of just three seasons.
Mourinho’s third-season struggles
So far this season, Mourinho has averaged 1.38 points per game in Serie A as his team languish in tenth place. That is a considerable drop off from last season’s average of 1.66 points per game, which equalled his record in his first season in Italian football. And this isn’t the first time that this has happened in the latter stages of the head coach’s career. In fact, when we consider the last three clubs that Mourinho spent at least three seasons coaching, we do begin to note a worrying trend.
For example, during his time at Manchester United things started remarkably well with a Europa League and League cup double in his first season and a league points per game average of 1.82. In his second season, Mourinho improved on that with a second-place finish in the Premier League and a points-per-game average of 2.13. However, in his third and final season he lasted just 17 games before leaving his post, after his record dropped to just 1.53 points per game. The same thing also happened during his second spell at Chelsea, where he finished third (2.16 points per game), won the League Cup and Premier League title (2.29 points per game) in his second season, then completely imploded in his third season and finished the season after just 16 games with an average of 0.94 points per game.
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Prior to his return to England, Mourinho was in charge of Real Madrid and again we can see the limitations of his coaching success over three seasons. Against the might of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side, Mourinho averaged a solid 2.42 points per game in his first season then won Madrid their first league title in four years by picking up an incredible 2.63 points per game in his season. However, the third-season slump inevitably appeared and in his final year at the club he managed just 2.24 points per game as Madrid dropped back down to second.
One could even reexamine Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea and point to hints of a third-season curse there too. After back-to-back league titles in his first season, Mourinho may have won the cup double in his third season, but his points per game average in the league dropped from a high of 2.5 in 04/05 to 2.18 in 06/07. Of course, with the manager at the peak of his powers, there was no suggestion of letting him go, but it is worth noting that he would leave the club just four months after his third season, following a poor start to the fourth season and continued arguments with then club owner Roman Abramovich.
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