Jose Mourinho's influence goes beyond seeding possession, hammering Claude Makelele's name and looking dapper in a double-breasted overcoat. No manager has done more to popularize one of football's most overused phrases than In one moment.
There was a time when only Spanish or Portuguese coaches used the construction, a team “in a good moment”, a player “in a difficult moment”, etc. momento, usually understood as a generalized term, translated into English as “a moment”, sounds both fleeting and strange. Now it sounds almost natural even to native English speakers. “We are not in a great moment,” said Frank Lampard after Chelsea's defeat at Arsenal last week, similar words to Graham Potter after losing to Newcastle in November. Tune in next season to hear Mauricio Pochettino reprise.
no one has been in more moments than Mourinho, The current Roma manager has taken the Manchester United job “at a standstill”. Seeing Andy Murray at Queens in 2019, Mourinho said Murray was “at a special moment in his career”. tottenham were “in a difficult moment” 10 weeks before Mourinho was sacked. Who knows what kind of moment they find themselves in now, or how to describe Mourinho's current moment?
This includes the referee, a journalist and a club that is following him. is she in a naughty moment, In a fighting moment? Is that any other moment from the past 20 years? No, he's in a Mourinho moment.
We are a little more than 18 months from their nadir giving Norway's Bodø/Glimt six months in the Europa Conference League, a prestigious football team less than the midpoint of a URL. Clearly the ECL are guilty of the same mistake Scotland made against Brazil in 1982, angering Mourinho. he went on to win the competition last year and therefore qualification for the Europa League.
Now Bayer Leverkusen stand on their way to another European final, with Mourinho's side 1-0 up from the first leg of their Europa League semi-final, and Paris Saint-Germain are reportedly considering an approach, “If they called, they didn't find me,” Mourinho said, laughing it off for now, the way you can laugh off Jägerbombs at the start of a full day's crawl before ordering 16 at 3 p.m.
He claimed he was wearing a microphone on the touchline for Roma's game against Monza because he had earlier been burned by referee Daniel Chiffy. “I'm not stupid, you know,” said Mourinho. “Today, I went to the game with a microphone. I recorded everything. From the moment I left the locker room to the moment I came back. The shirt didn't get torn dramatically by the officer to reveal a wire, or, thankfully, any galleys Tony Soprano and colleagues ride in.
Then before a rematch against ECL eventual losers Feyenoord, Mourinho told a Dutch journalist not to cry before giving him a Conference League keyring (£14.99 + £3.95 shipping). Run, do not go to the online shop of Ufa. Roma won 5–2 on aggregate.
Overall there is the feel of a manager who has rediscovered the joys of mild evil. Keyrings and covert recordings are much nicer than poking Tito Villanova in the eye or taking out Luke Shaw until he's a husk of a full-back and Mourinho now looks like a silver fox again, Not its most recent English incarnation. Pet Husky. He's back to being provocative rather than annoying.
Maybe his absence helps. until the end of his Tottenham tenure He was a fading photocopy of his former self, a man whose name belonged to an inverted comma. now his pranks Italy arrives like a scattered postcard and feels like a pleasant throwback, not the craziness of that sad guy living in a hotel.
He appeared to be moving in less prestigious circles after taking jobs at Spurs and Roma. His next move to Portugal was considered as recently as December, but Benfica or Al-Hilal would have been equally plausible. Now reliable PSG links suggest his stock is on the rise again.
He turned 60 in January, the age at which Sir alex Ferguson had six more Premier League titles, one FA Cup and one Champions League. PSG can match another phrase beloved by European coaches: “a beautiful project”. Mourinho, who was written off and consigned to history, may just come back.