Product Description

Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, has made an immediate impact on English football, with his unmistakeable self-confidence, drive and ambition. His rise from relatively humble beginnings as assistant coach to Sir Bobby Robson to most sought-after club manager in Europe, is a fascinating and revealing story.

Long-term friend, journalist Luís Lourenço tells us about the formative years of Mourinho's career. We learn of his management skills – the way he motivates players, and his football philosophy. Mourinho himself writes of his move to Roman Abramovich's Chelsea; of his ‘mind games’ with Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United are knocked out of Europe; and his fears for his and his family’s safety after receiving a death threat on the eve of what should have been the biggest night of his life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64891 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Jez Walters, Chelsea Football Club website
A 'must read' for all Chelsea fans.

Customer Reviews

An Account of Mourinho's career until he came to Chelsea
The book is an account of Mourinho's career until he signed up for chelsea in 2004. It gives you a insight into the man, how he thinks and some of his working tactics in football management. An account written by Mourinho's friend and Jose' Mourinho himself, it makes an interesting read.

I would recommend the book as a source of motivation and as a manual for those trying to understand the man himself. Love him or hate him, the book helps you get a better understanding of the man.

The Pele of football managers!
If you like what the man has done since he came to this country you must buy this book. It tells the story of how he went from assistant to Bobby Robson to the main man in European Football.

The book is written by lifelong friend and journalist Luis Lourenco and contains a lot of direct and detailed quotes from Mourinho himself and is probably the most informative book I have read on football, he doesnt just talk blandly about tactics he goes into detail and what you see at Chelsea he was doing at smaller portugese clubs 3 or 4 seasons ago, with the same confidence and style.

His management career (as a number 1) is only 5-6 years old and Chelsea is his 4th club, which is a fast turnaround, yet every club he joins improves and every club he has left have gone backwards afterwards. Not to mention that in that time he won everything there is to win in Portugal, as well as the UEFA Cup and Champions League.

The Portuguese One (partially) revealed
This book is a refreshing change from the usual dull biology. It mostly concentrates on Mourinho's development and ideas throughout his fantastic career.

The strong point of the book is that it actually discusses some of his tactical and psychological views of the game, which is quite revealing. It shows that Mourinho is a serious, loving student of the game. It is obvious that his players totally admire him - like a modern Clough. Football needs more people like him.

The only downside is that the author does ramble on about certain bureaucrats and other non-entities for pages and pages. I don't think the reader is interested. I tended to skip over these parts to get to the "juicy" parts.

Pretty cool. Let's hope he will be stupid enough to be England manager :)