Page 155 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

(Spain looks beyond the Pyrenees for adversaries). That lack of respect would never be completely
forgotten, or forgiven, by Mourinho.
When Van Gaal was replaced in 2000, José’s contract was not renewed. He wanted to leave in
fact, as he felt ready to be a number one. Pep was finishing his seventh season in the first team of

Barcelona when Mourinho looked for a coaching job in Portugal.
The rest is history. José became a winning coach and his success with Porto and Chelsea gave him
the opportunity to replace Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, certainly one of his biggest dreams.
But his tumultuous relationship with the Barça fans made some decision-makers at the Catalan club
wary. It all began to go wrong when he first returned to the Camp Nou as Chelsea manager for a
Champions League clash in 2005. In the first of many stormy encounters with the Catalans, Mourinho
accused Rijkaard of making a visit to referee Anders Frisk’s dressing room at half-time. Mourinho

complained to UEFA and in the ensuing maelstrom Frisk announced his retirement after receiving
email death threats from fans over the issue. Consequently, the head of UEFA’s referee committee
branded Mourinho ‘an enemy of football’.
But behind that controversial mask, there is an extraordinary coach – and Mourinho had several
admirers at the Camp Nou. In the meeting that took place with the Barcelona directors in Lisbon in the
spring of 2008, he desperately wanted to impress them. After the encounter, he was convinced he had

been chosen ahead of Pep Guardiola.
But when he was rejected, with no clear notification from the Barcelona directors for many weeks,
there was a burning feeling of betrayal.
Barcelona, on the other hand, and not for the first or the last time, were unable to take advantage of
what could have been considered one of their assets: after all, Mourinho had been at the club and
knew it well. It is a disease of the Catalan or even the Barcelona mentality: treat as deserters those
who leave the club, the nation, as happened with Ronaldinho recently or even with Pep Guardiola

himself. Instead of a friend, José became and was portrayed by the Catalan media and football society
as a foe – yet one with inside information and harbouring the bitterness of rejection, the worst kind of
antagonist.
Following that rejection and after winning the league twice and the Champions League with Inter
Milan in a two-year spell, he got the chance to sign for Real Madrid: an alternative route to a date
with destiny involving FC Barcelona.

Pep’s and José’s first encounter on opposing benches took place in the group stages of the Champions

League, 2010. Barcelona, the reigning champions, met Inter Milan in Mourinho’s second season at the
Italian club and drew 0-0 in Italy, but the result didn’t reflect the magisterial lesson in style,
positioning and possession of the Catalans. At the return leg at the Camp Nou, Guardiola decided to
leave Ibrahimović and Messi on the bench for the in-form Pedro and Henry, who played as striker,
and again the performance was excellent – an emphatic 2-0 victory.
‘Mourinho, go to the theatre,’ sang the Barcelona fans as a reminder of his comment about Leo
Messi’s supposed ‘play-acting’ in a 2006 tie against Chelsea and of his provocative slide along the
Nou Camp touchline to celebrate a Chelsea goal the last time he was in the visitors’ dugout. The

Portuguese coach cocked his ear to the 98,000 Barça fans the second time they taunted him.
All in all, it had been an uncomfortable return for José, but he was gracious in defeat: ‘Barça were
spectacular,’ he admitted afterwards. This first exchange of blows between both managers reflected
the expected superiority in quality. But Mourinho learnt up close what made Pep’s team so good.