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The Special One has
more than earned his moniker now. Jose Mario dos Santos Felix Mourinho,
to give him full respect, on Saturday became only the third manager in
history to win the UEFA Champions League with two clubs.

In 2004, he led
Portuguese club, Porto to European fame. With this latest victory with
Inter Milan of Italy, he also completed an unprecedented Italian treble
having won the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia. An elated Inter
president, Massimo Moratti, said:

“Mourinho is
unique. No one can coach, motivate and communicate like he can. We have
to agree with this as the Italian side had to wait forty five years to
conquer Europe again”.

Truly special

At a relatively
young age of 47, he has won a lot of silverware for Porto, Chelsea and
Inter Milan. This is his second treble as a manager and even more
incredibly, he remains unbeaten in all home league games with these
clubs since 2002; a phenomenal record, one that has definitely
established his reputation as a master tactician and a man in the top
tier of football management. Love him or hate him, no one can deny the
Special One his Special place in history.

But his style of
football has been much criticised over the years. Purists argue that
his largely negative football kills the game as we know and enjoy it,
thus earning him the ‘anti-football’ tag in some quarters. If he does
go on to manage Real Madrid, there are fears that he will stifle the
attack-minded club’s style. That’s all very well but he’s a man that
consistently delivers the silverware. And silverware is desperately
needed by the mega spending Spanish club.

Beautiful game or silverware?

Which brings me to
ask the question: which would you choose? Would you, a football fan,
opt for flair football over a full trophy cabinet? Jose Mourinho can
serve as a mini case study. Looking at the Champions League final, I
feel it could certainly have been a more exciting game. With Inter’s
two defensive midfielders lying very deep, the odds were against this
from kick off. But in a game where the opposition enjoyed the lion’s
share of possession and failed to lift the trophy, can we really blame
Mourinho? His strength is the strategic forethought that he brings to
the game and his ability to unite a motley group to one purpose. Any
Mourinho-led team maintains discipline on the back line and take their
chances on the counter attack. But he also showed in the first leg of
the semi finals against Barcelona that he can adapt the alleged
negative football to get results.

There are few of us
who would choose style over results. Ask any Arsenal fan and they will
probably settle for some form of silverware over fantastic footie. For
me, if I could see our Super Eagles win the African Cup of Nations in
succession and perhaps even the World Cup, believe me when I say that I
would be willing to suffer 90 or even 120 minutes of rotten football.
Did they say negative, please make that a double negative.

I love to watch
exciting football as much as the next person but if any team continues
to lose, they will lose some fans. Even diehard fans begin to lose
patience when all you can boast of is, ‘well, we play the game like it
should be played.” Exodus will take on a whole new meaning for the club
as they watch players move on to other clubs in order to achieve bigger
things, making the team even less appealing to potential trophy
winners. And there are financial implications too: fewer trophies=less
prize money. Would I choose winning over exciting football? Yes
(whisper) for a little while.