Page 162 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

situation. And that was Mourinho’s mistake. It was one that he vowed would never happen again.
José used the backlash of that humbling defeat to help him justify and argue that the supertanker that
is Real Madrid needed to change course – convincing all aboard that they should follow his direction.
For Mourinho, that 5-0 defeat exposed the fact that the club needed a drastic change: from one being

run by the president to one run by a winning manager who could control signings, the academy,
facilities, everything. In his quest to knock Barcelona from their perch, the Portuguese was going to
transform, for the first time in history, the role of first-team coach at Real Madrid into a general
manager – and more, into the leading light of the institution.

Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho may have different styles of leadership and contrasting
personalities but they have one very important thing in common: they both love football, winning and
are successful in the leadership of their respective teams. They control, plan, analyse and decide
everything. They win by surrounding themselves with their praetorian guard and discard those who
don’t fit with their ideas for the squad. They both have superstar players whom they count on in the

pursuit of silverware. A lot in common, then.
Pep wants to leave a legacy and a blueprint for the club that will last the test of time, so that the
team can still keep up its winning ways long after his departure from the dugout. At Real Madrid, and
having reached a position of huge power, so does Mourinho – in his eyes, one of his main targets is to
bring the club to the new century and set ways to keep them at the top.
The Portuguese’s charisma is preceded by his fame and success, but in Spain he had a tough

challenge ahead in pleasing a fanbase with high expectations, who demanded attractive football and
silverware. He started providing both very early on.
Mourinho might put on a front with the media, yet another enemy, but he is generous with his
players. He transmits love and respect to them. He is actually a lot softer than he lets on, although his
public persona tries to give people the opposite impression. He is honest with them: ‘I’m not going to
tell them they are doing things well if that isn’t the case.’
Pep and José soon won their troops over.

Listen to Ibrahimović: ‘José Mourinho is a big star … He’s cool. The first time he met [my wife]
he whispered to her: “Helena, you have only one mission. Feed Zlatan, let him sleep, keep him
happy!” The guy says what he wants. I like him.’
Or to Mascherano: ‘Never in my career have I seen a dressing room of players follow a coach with
so much faith; what he says goes. I reckon it will be difficult to come across another. Pep has the gift

of leadership.’
‘He has got one thing going for him that no one can fail to notice,’ Patrick Barclay writes in his
enlightening Mourinho: Anatomy of a Winner. ‘He is astonishingly good looking. Players appear
desperate to win his approval, like schoolgirls fighting for an approving glance from their favourite
teacher. As well as being very handsome, Mourinho is always nicely turned out, something most
modern professional footballers take extremely seriously.’ Pep’s aura can be described in the same
way: ‘You just want to impress him,’ Xavi says.
Mourinho is constantly making notes in his now famous notebook, something he took from Van

Gaal, his maestro. It was not the only thing he learnt from the Dutch coach. Or from Bobby Robson.
Or many other coaches he studied carefully.
According to Juanma Lillo, ‘Guardiola is a sponge, he learns from everybody because for him
anywhere is a good place to talk about football, to confront ideas and turn a game into a passion.’