5 unfair criticisms levelled at Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho, or the ‘Special One’ as he likes to call himself (and a sobriquet that a large chunk of football fans would agree with), is never one to shy away from a battle. He always seems to be mired in one controversy or the other, and he enjoys the spotlight that he attracts with his quicksilver tongue and cheeky comments.As expected of anyone who is unabashed in public, Mourinho has a fair few detractors and has constantly faced criticism throughout his managerial career. As he never backs off from a war of words, he invites a lot of the controversies; his rows with Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola have been well-documented.As big as the legion of Mourinho’s admirers is, the critics have always had a number of bones to pick with in Mourinho’s management, be it at his first club Porto or at Real Madrid. Much of the criticism he faces, however, is unfounded and arises either out of a misunderstanding of his mentality, the context of his actions or his play-safe tactics.Here, we systematically take down some of the unfounded charges levelled at Mourinho.

#1 That he has destroyed many talented players\' careers

Jose Mourinho has been accused of stalling many players’ careers in their tracks; of halting their progress to the point from which their careers started going downhill. This acccusation is plainly untrue, just on face value. Instead of letting players rot, Mourinho has always offloaded players who don’t fit into his scheme of things at the club.

This criticism is often made with reference to players like Quaresma, Kaka, Juan Mata and Kevin de Bruyne. We have to remember how he dispensed with each of them: Kaka always had a role to play in the squad and was regularly started in many matches when he was fit, and on many occasions. Each of the other three players was simply shipped off to the best available club, where they continued to get playing time.

If anything, by selling players like de Bruyne, Schurrle, Lukaku, Sergio Canales, Pedro Leon and Lassana Diarra, Mourinho gave them the opportunity to find regular first-team football elsewhere, which should ideally have contributed to their return to form. If some of those players (like Mata, for example) haven’t played at their best at their new clubs, it is not Mourinho’s fault.