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Jose Mourinho turned 60 last week and at the Roma training ground in Trigoria, to the south of the Italian capital, they held an impromptu birthday party for him. When Mourinho cut his cake in the changing room, the players all applauded and it looked a little like footage from the National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Nobody wanted to be the first to stop clapping.
Mourinho being Mourinho, there were barely concealed messages and slights even in the cutting of a cake. He is the archetype of a man who could start a fight in an empty room so props like a slice of cake are manna from heaven for him. He took the first piece and walked over to his captain, Lorenzo Pellegrini. He handed it to him with great ceremony, taking care to ignore studiously Nicolo Zaniolo, who wants to leave the club, in the process.
History repeats itself with Mourinho. When his relationship with then Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich broke down the first time round in September 2007 and he departed Stamford Bridge, he walked around the dressing room, shaking hands with the players. He came to one player, who he had come to distrust, and walked past him without offering his hand. It was the power of the gesture. It stung more than a slap in the face.
An impromptu party was held for Jose Mourinho at Roma to celebrate his 60th birthday
Mourinho wants to return to the Premier League for a third spell at Todd Boehly's Chelsea
It is strange to think of the Special One at 60, especially for those of us who remember him in his pomp 20 years ago, unleashing himself on the Premier League like a whirlwind, raging against everyone and everything, getting banned by UEFA, smuggling himself into the changing room at the Bridge in a laundry skip, calling Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’, mocking Rafa Benitez, establishing himself as the best coach in the world.
He had already won the Champions League with Porto by then, of course, a feat that still ranks as one of the great managerial achievements of modern times. He won it again, against the odds again, with Inter Milan but never with Chelsea or Real Madrid, where he had lavish funds at his disposal. It fed the idea that he was at his best when he was rallying an underdog, feeding hunger in players who had something to prove.
There is some sense that he should have won the biggest prize in the club game more often. Two Champions League titles feels like a modest return in the career of a man who has won league titles in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain.
Mourinho handed a piece of his cake to Lorenzo Pellegrini during the celebration at Roma
He has had a magnificent career and he will be remembered as one of the greats but last week’s landmark birthday was also a reminder that for the last few years, he has become the manager that football forgot.
Mourinho has not won a league title in eight years
It is eight years since he won a league title. He was not alone in being unable to turn around the tangled fortunes of Manchester United in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era but his spell at Old Trafford, when he took pride in counting the Community Shield as a major trophy, marked the beginning of his decline. United finished second one year under him but there was never a sense, as there is now under Erik ten Hag, that he was turning things around.
It is not that Roma are a small club. It is not that Spurs are a small club, either. But after he failed to arrest the slide at United, his last two jobs have been with teams just below the elite level. He never got within sniffing distance of the Premier League title with Spurs and Roma currently lie 13 points adrift of league leaders Napoli, who they play this evening, in the Serie A standings.
Mourinho is doing a good job at Roma and has breathed new life and optimism into a great club but it is a sign of the way his horizons have changed that winning the Europa Conference League last season, a competition lightly regarded by the
