Page 154 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

club, as he had done at Sporting Lisbon and Porto. From the start, José, fluent in Spanish and Catalan,
was always present at the meetings with the Barcelona president Josep Lluís Núñez or the vice-
president, Joan Gaspart, helping his boss both translate and understand the context, as by then he was
already more than the ‘interpreter’, a nickname used by some as far back as Porto where actually

Mourinho had already been helping with training. Despite the initial reticence of players to accept the
instructions of a young man without experience in the football elite they eventually recognised José
could see football as clearly as any.
At Barcelona, Robson, who never fully managed to master the language, needed Mourinho to help
him settle into his new life in Spain along with his wife, Elsie. José’s own partner, Matilde, was also
always on hand to help out, and dinner at the Robsons’ invariably included the Mourinhos. Little by
little, the manager gave his subordinate more influence in the day-to-day running of the team and even

the assistant offered by the club, José Ramón Alexanko, had to share his authority and involvement in
training sessions with the young Portuguese. According to some of the players who spoke English,
José’s instructions when translating Robson came sharper than his mentor’s and sometimes with a
little bit extra. His videos, exposing and highlighting the weaknesses and strengths of the opposition,
were well considered and his relationship with Ronaldo also helped him win some kudos in the
group. He soon became the shoulder to cry on when players were left out of the team as Robson

purposefully maintained a professional distance from the squad. Astutely, José crossed that line
constantly and freely.
Mourinho quickly recognised Guardiola as a natural leader and decided to get close to him, and
win him over. He succeeded. The pair would spend hours together after training, chatting both in
Spanish and Catalan. ‘We did talk about things, when we both had doubts, and we would exchange
ideas, but I don’t remember it as something that defined our relationship. He was Mister Robson’s
assistant and I was a player,’ Guardiola says now.

Guardiola at that time was, as Robson would put it, ‘a big fish’, and never afraid to give his
opinions on the way to play, what they had to do or avoid doing. In fact, little by little and finally for
large parts of the season, the so-called ‘gang of 4’ (Pep, Luis Enrique, Sergi and Abelardo)
established an element of self-management when they recognised that Robson couldn’t quite get to
grips with the Barcelona style and the demands of La Liga. It was a critical time and Mourinho had to
place himself on the side of the coach

Robson won three trophies that season (Spanish Cup, Spanish Super Cup and European Cup
Winners’ Cup) but not the league and, by April, the club, aware of the lack of authority of the
manager, had already signed Louis Van Gaal who had impressed at Ajax. Mourinho had decided that
he wanted to go back to Portugal at the end of the campaign, but Robson recommended him to the
Dutch coach who gave José even more authority and allowed him to coach the team in a few
friendlies and dispense some tactical chats at half-time. The Robsons were replaced at the evening
meals by Truus and Louis, the Van Gaals.

Slowly but surely, José’s personality started blossoming. Away from Robson, after a few years of
working in the dressing rooms of big clubs, freed from the early ties that contrived his behaviour, Van
Gaal discovered ‘an arrogant young man, who didn’t respect authority that much, but I did like that of
him. He was not submissive, used to contradict me when he thought I was in the wrong. Finally I
wanted to hear what he had to say and ended up listening to him more than the rest of the assistants.’
Mourinho was clearly much more than a translator at Barcelona, but that was how he was known

by the Catalan media and the title by which president Núñez insisted on referring to him as such. It is
easy for a Spaniard to dismiss the authority of a Portuguese, two nations with a unilateral rivalry