Thirteen years. That is how long it has been since Jose Mourinho left Real Madrid calling it the worst year of his career and heading for the exit with a cloud of controversy following him out of the Bernabeu door. And now he is going back. Fabrizio Romano confirmed the deal. Two years. Florentino Perez's chosen one. Again.
Let us just process the chain of events that led to this. Xabi Alonso was appointed last summer amid enormous excitement and was gone by January. Alvaro Arbeloa, former defender and reserve team coach, stepped in as interim and has been holding the fort ever since. The dressing room has reportedly been fractured, results have been poor and the atmosphere inside the Bernabeu has soured. Florentino looked around the managerial market and decided the answer to all of this was a 63 year old who last managed a top club at Benfica and before that spent a year at Fenerbahce and Roma.
And yet. You cannot entirely dismiss this. Mourinho won the La Liga title with Madrid in 2012 with a record 100 points. He broke the stranglehold of Guardiola's Barcelona when everyone thought it was impossible. He knows how to handle a fractured dressing room because he has been in fractured dressing rooms his entire career. If anyone can walk into a toxic environment and immediately establish authority and order it is Mourinho.
The question is whether the game has moved on too far. The last time he was genuinely elite was Inter Milan in 2010. The Champions League treble. Everything since then has had moments but no sustained dominance. Chelsea second time around ended in a sacking. United ended in a sacking. Tottenham ended in a sacking. Roma gave him a Europa Conference League but also ended in a sacking.
The pattern is real. Mourinho starts well, builds something, falls out with the board, falls out with the players and eventually it collapses. Real Madrid are not a patient club. Florentino Perez is not a patient president. When Mourinho's third season last time was described by the man himself as the worst of his career they parted ways quickly.
If it works, it will be one of football's great comeback stories. If it does not, nobody should be surprised.
Let me know your thoughts.