José Mourinho has rediscovered his charm in Italy. Photo: Reuters/Alberto Lingria. in a double-breasted coat. No manager has done more to popularize one of the most used phrases in football – to be in the moment.
There was a time when the structure was used only by Spanish or Portuguese coaches, a team “at a good moment”, a player “at a difficult moment”. etc. Their momento, usually understood as a generalized period, is translated in English as “moment”, which seemed both fleeting and awkward. Now it sounds almost natural even to native English speakers. "We are not having the best moment" Frank Lampard said after Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal last week, as did Graham Potter after their defeat to Newcastle in November. Tune in next season for Mauricio Pochettino's reprise.
No one has been in more moments than Mourinho. The current Roma manager took the job at Manchester United “at a stable moment”. Watching Andy Murray at Queen's in 2019, Mourinho said Murray had a “special moment in his career”. Tottenham were “at a difficult moment”. 10 weeks before Mourinho's dismissal. Who knows where they are now, or how to describe Mourinho's current moment?
It has to do with the liquidation of the referees, the journalist and the club that might be haunting him. Is he in a mischievous moment? At the moment of battle? Is this different from any other moment he's been in in the last 20 years? No, he's in Mourinho's moment now.
We have surpassed its nadir by just over 18 months, losing six in the European Conference League to the Norwegian team Bodo/Glimt, a lesser outstanding football team more than mid-URL. It is clear that the ECL is guilty of the same mistake as Scotland against Brazil in 1982, which angered Mourinho. Last year he won the competition and consequently qualified for the Europa League.
Now Bayer Leverkusen are on their way to another European final, with Mourinho's side down 1-0 from the first leg of the Europa League semi-final, with Paris Saint-Germain reportedly considering the option. “If they called, they didn’t find me.” Mourinho said, laughing at it like you could laugh at Jagerbombs at the start of a crawl all day before ordering 16 at 3pm.
He claimed to have worn a microphone on the sideline during Roma's game against Monza because referee Daniele Schiffi had previously burned him: “You know, I'm not a fool.” Mourinho said. "Today I went to the game with a microphone. I wrote everything down. From the moment I left the locker room to the moment I came back. I protected myself.” Unfortunately, there is no dramatic shirt ripping to expose the wire by the fourth judge smelling something wrong, or, thankfully, long boat rides with Tony Soprano and his colleagues.
Then before a rematch with ECL final losers Feyenoord, Mourinho told a Dutch journalist not to cry before giving him a Conference League keychain (£14.99 – £3.95 with shipping. Run, don't go to UEFA. online store). Roma won 5-2 on aggregate.
Overall, there is a sense of a manager rediscovering the joy of soft evil. Trinkets and secret notes are so much nicer than poking Tito Vilanoff in the eyes or gutting Luke Shaw until he's just a shell of a defender, and Mourinho is now like a crooked silver fox again, rather than his latest English incarnation as a tamed shrew. He has become provocative again, not sullen.
Perhaps his absence helps. By the end of his time at Tottenham, he had become a fading photocopy of his former self, a man whose name should have been in quotation marks. Now his machinations in Italy arrive like scribbled postcards and feel like fond memories rather than the paranoid chatter of that sad man who lives in the hotel.
After Spurs and a stint at Roma, he, seems to be moving. lesser circles. Portugal was considered his next move back in December, but Benfica or Al Hilal would have been just as likely. Now, a credible reference to PSG suggests that its shares are rising again.
He turned 60 in January, and at that age Sir Alex Ferguson has won six more Premier League titles, one FA Cup and one Champions League. PSG could also live up to another phrase favored by European coaches: "a beautiful project". Mourinho, written off and gone down in history, may simply return.
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