Jose pulling strokes, not strings
Dropped by Jose Mourinho, Casillas could have been forgiven for sulking, pouting, maybe suppressing a smirk as Real went 3-1 down late in the game. Instead, he reacted like each Malaga goal was a knife in his ribs, and celebrated Karim Benzema’s strike for 3-2 as though he had scored it himself. Olympian selflessness from the model pro, the ultimate team-man, Jesus in stripey red socks. Sunday’s Marca described him as “the saint of saints of the club”. Mission accomplished.
Marca has been central to the unravelling of the relationship between Mourinho and some of the senior players at Real Madrid. In January, the paper alleged that there had been angry exchanges between Mourinho, Sergio Ramos and Casillas. Mourinho told the Spanish internationals that “your friends in the press protect you... like the goalkeeper.”
Ramos retorted that Mourinho couldn’t grasp why the players made certain decisions on the field because the coach had never been a player himself.
Eight days ago, the Marca journalist Anton Meana revealed Mourinho had called him into in a private meeting at the Bernabeu Stadium to tell him: “in the world of soccer, my team and I are ‘top’ and in the world of journalism, you are a shit.” Mourinho was angry because Meana had been on Radio Marca saying some Real Madrid players had an uneasy relationship with goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro, who has been with Mourinho since his Porto days. Apparently the players felt Louro was like a “spy” for Mourinho.
Football is full of stories of managers who arrive in a new job and sign a player they’ve worked with before who doesn’t seem to have an obvious role in the team. The other players soon work out that the new player’s actual role is to report back to the manager on what the players are saying. This guy is soon nicknamed “Playercam” or something along those lines and finds himself shunned by the other team mates.
Real Madrid may be the first club where the players are shocked to learn that the goalkeeping coach is reporting back to the head-coach. One suspects the truth is even worse than the players thought. It could be that everyone on Mourinho’s staff is conniving with Mourinho. Reporting back to him on what the players do in training. How could any player be expected to work under these conditions? Mourinho told Meana that at Madrid there were 21 players who had a great relationship with Louro, and “like everywhere, three black sheep who f*ck the group.” The dropping of Casillas seemed to confirm the identity of at least one of the black sheep. “You can invent whatever story you want,” Mourinho said, “but it’s purely a technical decision.”
Is there a sound technical argument for dropping Iker Casillas, arguably the most successful European goalkeeper of his generation? Well, Casillas is only 5’11”, which makes him the shortest first-team goalkeeper Mourinho has worked with since he managed Porto. Vitor Baia, Nuno, Cech, Hilario, Cudicini, Julio Cesar, Toldo and Adan are all 6’1” or taller. Casillas is an agile shot-stopper who has more inspired games than any other goalkeeper in recent times except Gianluigi Buffon, but Mourinho, a manager with clear ideas about the physical traits players should have, has usually favoured keepers who dominate the area.
Of course, everyone knows it was not a technical decision. Casillas’ height has not changed since Mourinho arrived at the club, but it’s only now that it seems to have become a deal-breaker. The real problem between them is political.
Alex Ferguson recently told students at Harvard Business School that the frequency with which some clubs change managers has resulted in their longer-serving players amassing an unhealthy influence. Mourinho is the 14th Real Madrid manager Casillas has played for. As the captain of Spain, he is Madrid’s strongest link to the national team’s Barcelona-dominated golden age. He’s a legend, a national hero, and in the context of Real Madrid, is bigger than any manager. Plainly he has not been able to hide his awareness of that superior status from Mourinho.
The dropping of Casillas is Mourinho’s last effort to reassert his authority over a team that has disintegrated under the pressure of trying to compete with Tito Vilanova’s relentless Barcelona. Madrid have not been able to sustain the concentrated effort that took them to the league title last season and everyone is looking for someone to blame. Mourinho is making sure the world understands his disgust at the players. Most Madrid fans are blaming him, judging by the polls showing that a majority believe he should be sacked, but the wider world who doesn’t see Casillas as “the saint of saints” will probably judge Mourinho’s part in the failure less harshly.
You frequently hear it argued that Mourinho causes too much trouble to ever be a long-term success at any club. He starts too many fights inside and outside the club and the whole thing quickly collapses in acrimony.
Remember though, he is the fourth-longest-serving manager in the post-war history of Real Madrid. Only Miguel Munoz, Vicente del Bosque and Leo Beenhakker have managed more Madrid matches, and none of them had to contend with a rival like the Barcelona of Messi and Xavi. A Real Madrid manager typically lasts about a season, so in the context of the club, Mourinho has already been a long-term success.
Madrid may decide over Christmas that they can’t put up with any more of José Mourinho telling them they’re not as good as they think they are, but after he’s gone, their results will keep telling them the same thing.
