Since the turn of the decade, we haven’t seen too many managers at the top of European football as controversial as Jose Mourinho. He has enjoyed great success with his clubs, but he hasn’t always been everyone’s cup of tea.
Mourinho first made a name for himself at Porto, where he led the side to the 2004 Champions League title, for just the second time in their history. No Portuguese side have come as close to winning Europe’s top prize since.
This was enough to persuade Roman Abramovich that he was the man to bring success to Stamford Bridge, and he succeeded, winning successive Premier League titles in his first two seasons at Chelsea.
Juan Mata
This is still one of the more bizarre ones on this list, that no one has ever really been able to work out. Mata was quite brilliant for Chelsea in his first two seasons with the club, winning their Player of the Year award on both occasions.
He was a huge part of the side who won the Champions League in 2012, and was almost irreplaceable in their team. That was at least until Mourinho came along.
From the first moment, there were problems. He didn’t make it into Mourinho’s side at the start of the season, and he was never able to change his manager’s mind about him. Mourinho was unhappy with Mata’s inability to track back in the same way some of his other players did, and he felt it often left them vulnerable at the back.
He was sold to Manchester United just six months after Mourinho returned to Chelsea. Ironically, Mourinho took over at Old Trafford in 2016, and Mata currently finds himself out of the United side.
Bastian Schweinsteiger
This was another strange one, as Mourinho has always liked to build his teams around senior players, and there were none more senior at United than the German World Cup winner when he took over at Old Trafford.
However, Schweinsteiger was forced out of the club just six months into Mourinho’s reign, having failed to make a single Premier League appearance during that period.
There was never really any reason given for Mourinho’s treatment of Schweinsteiger, it just looked like he never really fancied him.
The German was demoted to the side’s under-23 team on the arrival of the Portuguese manager, and although he returned to training with the first team, and played a few times in cup competitions, it was obvious his time in England was over. He moved over to America to play for Chicago Fire in January 2017, where he remains now.
Luke Shaw
You may be looking at this now when Luke Shaw is almost the first name on the team sheet for United, and wondering what the problem was between the pair, but Mourinho has never subjected a player to the same level of public criticism that he did the fullback.
It is a surprise that Shaw is actually still at United, and it is a testament to his professionalism and temperament that he was prepared to work so hard to win back the trust of his manager.
At times, it felt that Mourinho’s treatment of Shaw was almost personal, and he once stated that the young left back had only put in a good performance as he had been telling him what to do at all times.
The Englishman had been in and out of Mourinho’s team, but looks to have nailed down a spot this season, and returned to the England squad for their first fixtures since the World Cup in Russia.