JOSE MOURINHO HAS given a clear indication that the vacant manager’s position at Newcastle United doesn’t appeal to him, saying that taking charge of a club where the objective is to stay in the top half of the table not in his nature.
The Magpies are searching for a new manager following the failure to agree a deal with Rafael Benitez, whose three-year spell at the club is set to end when his contract expires on Sunday.
Mourinho has been without a job in football since he left Manchester United in December 2018 and was linked with the vacancy at St. James’ Park.
He succeeded Benitez at Chelsea in 2013, but history looks unlikely to repeat itself this summer.
But in an interview with The Coaches’ Voice he gave a clear description of the kind of job he does not want to take on.
“The only thing I know is what I don’t want,” said Mourinho.
“What I don’t want is crystal clear. I am quite pathological in the sense that I have to play to win. Then, if I win or if I don’t win, that’s my problem and the players and the club and the structure. But I need a project where the feeling is I play to win.
“If someone gives me a wonderful, amazing 10-year contract and says the objective of the team is to stay in the first part of the table, and if you finish seventh or eighth or ninth it’s perfect, that’s not for me. That’s not my nature.
“It’s not me. My next is to fight to win.”
Mourinho was linked with Juventus before the Italian champions appointed Maurizio Sarri as their new head coach, and the former Inter and Porto boss said he is open to working in a new setting when he takes his next job.
He offered a reminder of his unparalleled success as a manager in Europe’s top leagues, while hinting that a role in charge of a national team is not out of the question.
“I’m quite flexible to adapt,” said Mourinho. “I’m quite flexible to sometimes go against my own ideas and choose the right way to succeed.
“I am until now the only manager that won the league in England, Italy and Spain. You need that flexibility, that control of the environment. You need to adapt to the reality of the club, of the competition, even socially you need to understand the needs, the aims, the motivations of everyone.
“That’s why I say that I’m really rich with this kind of experience – that’s why I don’t close the door to a new country, to a new competition because I’ve always liked this feeling of the unknown and this feeling: can I win?”
that’s where his previous 2 clubs were sitting at the table the time he was sacked so maybe it’s time to accept his level
@Tomás Fenton: he’s extremely good for short term success. The second season is always over-achieving and then by the third everything goes to shit. I believe he was in his second season with porto when they won the UCL. Anyone who thinjs he is a bad manager only started watching after 2015
@Tomás Fenton: also i know he can be a d¡ckhead when things go badly but still
@Tomás Fenton: champions leagues woth porto and chels. Lets not disrespect the champ
@JMG: never won the champions league with Chelsea.
In other words he wants to manage at a club that will allow him to buy success because he’s not a good enough coach to get his team playing better.
@Ger: He has recently said he is open to international teams & he didn’t buy success at Inter or Porto.
He’d be found out at a club like Newcastle where he doesn’t have a big cheque book. Rafa keeping Newcastle up was nearly a miracle with the resources he had..They would have gone down with Jose
@James Heffernan: agreed. Raga keeping them up year after year is akin to winning a trophy
Says it all really about the special needs one
I would be amazed if he got another top club job. He will manage a country next…. the managerial roundabout is unbelievable though and the same failed candidates seem to still get the jobs…
Notts Forest have an opening
I don’t like Mourinho, but he’s right not to go within 100 miles of Newcastle.
This is wishful thinking from Jose…After the Man Utd debacle he’s toxic in England….What club wants a manager that will turn half the team against him? It s been fun but the glory days are gone Jose…
Defensively brilliant, a decent motivator but a phenomenally overrated coach who got lucky landing some big jobs with a bottomless pit of cash to spend.
Could see him managing Italy one day as they love park-the-bus footie over there. The big clubs will not touch him with a barge pole again, so it’s international for Jose now.