Mourinho's end-of-season jokes come back to haunt him

It's funny how sometimes a manager loses his aura, and when it happens it's difficult to get back.

I've seen this happen before. Ruud Gullit, when he first came to the UK, was well loved by the media, he was the epitome of cool, they loved him as a player and then in his first season as a manager, the media heroworshipped him as the authority on football. He won the FA Cup in his first season, Chelsea's first trophy in decades. Then he had a spat with the board and was sacked, and somehow was different, when he was in media studios he was never as relaxed, and when he took over at Newcastle he was defensive and prickly, seemed to be fighting the media, his own players and fans.

Kenny Dalglish had a Ferguson-esque reputation in the mid 1990s, not only had he continued Liverpool's great success for a while, but after a break from the game he came to Blackburn, brought them promotion and won the league. When he took over at Newcastle who had finished 2nd the year before people saw him as potentially the final piece of the jigsaw. But Kenny's spell in Newcastle was a disaster and after that he always looked much older. He was also much more defensive with the media. He always had a bit of sarcastic wit, but in his first Liverpool and Blackburn spell he was generally relaxed and had fun with the media, second time round he retreated in to "Liverpool Football Club" like it was Millwall "noone likes us we don't care".

Kevin Keegan was another who seemed to walk on water in Newcastle for a while and was everyone's favourite entertaining manager but after he had his first mini-breakdown as Newcastle manager he always seemed fragile.

I'm always wary of a much hyped manager - wait till they have their first 'test' and then see how you view them. Once Aidy Boothroyd was going to be the "English Mourinho", what happened to him? Malky Mackay as well was seen as a paragon of dignity. Even Brendan Rodgers was once earmarked all the way for the top but has had a fall from grace.

Absolutely. As a History student, it's actually something I see in dictators and leaders of state, too. They rely on a cult of personality, and when it caves in, it's irredeemable. It truly is a perfect storm for them when things are going well: the chaos factor underneath them doesn't affect their dictatorship or power, but as soon as one card falls, the whole house does.

Yeah - I am the same. Often successful leaders are good in the early stages at sensing what is around them, being adaptable and forging a style that works for their times. However after they have had success for a certain period there is a danger of them becoming a servant of their own style and becoming a caricature of their own strengths/weaknesses. Margaret Thatcher was a classic example. In her earlier years she was a great strategist, avoiding fights she couldn't win at the time, keeping people from the opposite wing of her party close, working pragmatically with others in Europe. But in her last years from 87 onwards she retreated in to a caricature of herself: the Iron Lady who would not listen or change policy (eg over the Poll Tax) and who would go and shake her handbag at other European leaders.

They don't like being pressured from within, which is why it was so obvious that Gerrard wouldn't be given a coaching role at Liverpool with Rodgers in charge, because the latter thought (and rightly) that the fans would clamour for the former if results went badly for a few weeks.

Without turning this into a history lesson for everybody else, but Thatcher suffered Howe's resignation, Heseltine's leadership challenge, and the campaign for the first ballot within a matter of days. That was a lot to contend with for a woman who was so used to being authoritarian.

I actually think Mike Ashley gave Shearer the manager's job and then the Liverpool owners brought back Dalglish

One reason why I think SAF is the greatest manager of all time is that he never retreated in to being a caricature of himself. As football evolved he evolved with it, people saw him as being authoritarian but he was always alert to new ideas. But also importantly for SAF, he had his core of loyal deputies around him in Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville. He was never going to "lose the dressing room". That's been something that other leading managers have not had.

In some cases managers have had to contend with a player who is more influential than they are: Liverpool managers who had to manage Gerrard or Newcastle managers who had to manage Shearer (who was a Dalglish and Souness loyalist but a potential problem for others, even Robson). Also some Chelsea managers found Drogba a problem.

^Great discussion lads

There's a reason Klopp said Gerrard was only going to train, nothing else, no promise or discussion of a coaching role. It becomes a distraction. Hodgson didn't succeed at Liverpool, mostly for his own failures but I did feel a sympathy for him that he had the shadow of Kenny hanging over him and latter was always at games, which can't have helped.

Decent to be reminded of this but it's not really surprising. I've always said Mourinho is a ****ing clown.

Will leave Chelsea before the season is out as well..

Agree with the first point. To that end, I'm a little surprised there has been no clamour for JT to become part of the coaching set-up at Stamford Bridge quite yet. You can imagine, if Hiddink disappoints and the next manager doesn't hit the ground running, JT will be looking to kick-start his managerial career.

Also, I think the key thing with SAF is that he had his core loyalists like you say, but he was never scared to bomb them out. You need to pick your battles. He bombed Stam out after he was disrespectful, but indulged Cantona's madness because he knew it would help him win titles. It's all to do with the players mentalities, of course, but look at Jose this season: he backed Ivanovic, but dropped JT, Costa, Hazard.

^I'm sure Mourinho has thrown nuanced criticism at Guardiola for picking and choosing his clubs and winning two league titles in Germany and has criticised the hegemony of Celtic int he SPL so yes, unless competition in France really picks up (shame Monaco's big dream turned sour and Marseille disappeared under Bielsa), Jose will be doing what he criticised others for which he will conveniently forget.

Mourinho went for the Barcelona job before they opted for Guardiola, though, so maybe that resentment comes from that.

Unquestionably. Also, the "translator" tag he got whilst assisting Sir Bobby irked him but yes, getting snubbed instead of Pep rankles with him big time. I doubt Sorriano/Txiki lose much sleep over that decision...