All aboard the Jose Mourinho managerial rollercoaster – strap in and enjoy the ride

I confess I didn’t think we’d be here again so soon. Eleven months after leaving Manchester United, Jose Mourinho is back in all of our lives and it already doesn’t feel like he’s been away.

The Jose experience is time-tested by now. He comes in clean-shaven and full of charm with a healthy dose of contrition to boot. He says he’s changed, how he’s now normal and no longer special. This time he was humble, or as humble as Mourinho can ever be.

“Would you say losing the Champions League final under Mauricio Pochettino had an impact?”, he was asked in his introductory press conference. “I don’t know because I never lost a Champions League final,” was his reply.

This is who Jose is or is certainly the version of himself he presents as he starts every new job. As a journalist he’s box office, always good copy, whether he’s winning or losing. Right now, he’s succeeding, his first outing as Tottenham Hotspur manager a victory over West Ham on Saturday.

It won’t end this way of course, it never does. There’ll be the honeymoon winning period, the hope that “no really, this time he has changed”. There’ll be cup success, perhaps a European run too. Maybe even a return to the top four as his old school wiles work their magic once more.

There’ll be the siege mentality, the us vs them. There may even be a title race decider, a bloody-minded two fingers to his detractors.

But then will come the stumble, the fallout, the public disagreement with his chairman and his squad. There’ll be the press conference grenade. There may even a shaved head. And it’ll end as it always does, in outcry and acrimony, with a club statement and a “thank you Jose for your efforts”.

This is the Jose Mourinho experience. He’ll make you laugh and cry, wonder and weep. It’ll be a rollercoaster. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports editor