Upon his appointment as the new Real Madrid manager, the newspapers went into a frenzy claiming with cocksure certainty that Jose Mourinho was all set to raid his former club Chelsea for the likes of Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho, as well as Steven Gerrard and Nemanja Vidic from Liverpool and Man Utd too, but there has been little or no evidence as yet of any moves for his former charges or anyone else from the Premiership for that matter.
Until he returns to our fair shores, the media will always be in the thrall of the ‘Special One’, and although the praise lavished on him can be quite over the top at times, he’s certainly a charismatic manager worth keeping an eye on no matter where his travels take him. But the 2 + 2 = 4 philosophy that Fleet Street works on has yet to come to fruition with concerns to the transfer policy that Mourinho has worked under since departing the Premiership.
At Inter Milan, Mourinho only once came back to England to do business and that was at Portsmouth for Sulley Muntari, a player who now finds himself on the fringes for both club and country and linked as a possible makeweight in any potential deal involving Javier Mascherano going to the Nerazzuri.
So then why is Mourinho consistently linked with moves with the Premiership’s finest when he’s made little or no move to sign any of them since he’s left Chelsea?
Well a lot of it is down to the ignorance of the media, although some will cite the circumstances with which Mourinho took over at Chelsea and proceeded to bring a few players with him from Porto and that whenever questioned about his former players at Stamford Bridge, he’s always effusive in his praise, but perhaps it’s just that, praise, and to use this as a strenuous link to a potential transfer is most frustrating.
Of course I may be proved completely wrong on this, and Mourinho may yet move to sign Ashley Cole, a logical step considering Real’s lack of a recognised and specialised left back since the heady days of Roberto Carlos’s rampaging runs down the left hand flank, and even Carvalho has been strongly linked for s second successive summer with a departure from West London, but Real Madrid’s summer activity to date thus far has shown an obvious shift towards pragmatism as opposed to the flawed one that has dogged the club for years.
Moves for Di Maria, a player brought in to add width, Pedro Leon, a player capable of covering in a number of positions in the forward line and a potential move for both Sami Khedira after a successful World Cup and Maicon all make sense to an extent, and it seems the illogical, and at times idiotic transfer policy at the Bernabeu looks to have come to an abrupt end with the arrival of Mourinho and a ceding of transfer authority to the manager as opposed to the Chairman and Sporting Director.
Mourinho will obviously still have to work with the aforementioned positions and closely, such is the political framework of Spanish clubs, but he has undoubtedly been afforded a larger degree over transfer policy than any manager that has come before him for the last decade or so and with this freedom comes a measure of realism that the transfer policy on show at Real Madrid is not a concomitant to success, and perhaps, just perhaps, the revolving door may come to a standstill of sorts.
It’s worth remembering that this Real Madrid squad, despite a poor performance in the Champions League and limp exit at the hands of Lyon, still amassed a formidable 96 points in the league and 102 goals in 38 league matches. There is little wrong with this squad, and had they won just one of the El Classico matches last season they would have emerged as champions.
No great surgery is needed, just a change of outlook, and Mourinho looks to be the one to provide it, despite the Pied Piper effect failing to take shape with the Premierships finest at least.
Written By James McManus
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