Even the most divisive of figures in sport are occasionally capable of unifying opinions.
Whether they worship or vilify him, any seasoned observer of Jose Mourinho will attest to his capacity to thrive in moments of controversy and use perceived slights to further his agenda.
A manager whose towering success in football this century has always been down to a formula that’s one-part tactical, one-part psychological warfare, the Portuguese is back in his happy place. Truculent, belligerent and having just traded insults with the enemy.
This could spell trouble for Rangers as they prepare to land in Istanbul ahead of Thursday’s hotly-anticipated Europa League clash with Fenerbahce.
The latest entry by the 62-year-old into Football’s Great Book of the Dark Arts is certainly up there among the litany of flash points which have punctuated his career.
Speaking after last week’s goalless draw in the derby against Galatasaray, Mourinho said the home bench had been ‘jumping like monkeys’.
Jose Mourinho is mobbed by Turkish supporters at his unveiling as Fenerbahce boss
Mourinho has had many run-ins down the years, notably with old foe Arsene Wenger
This led to Fenerbahce’s bitter rivals accusing Mourinho of making ‘racist statements’.
As Didier Drogba, an ex- Galatasaray player, defended his former Chelsea manager, along with fellow former Blues Michael Essien and William Gallas,
Mourinho filed a lawsuit seeking 1,907,000 Turkish Lira in damages (1907 was the year his current club were formed). You could be forgiven for believing you’ve heard it all before.
This is, after all, the man who, while at Stamford Bridge, caused the premature retirement of Anders Frisk after accusing the referee of bias towards Barcelona.
He also found time on the King’s Road to call then-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger both ‘a voyeur’ and ‘a specialist in failure’.
Among the other lowlights of a career high in success but low in class was the time, as Real Madrid manager, when he poked Barcelona assistant Tito Villanova in the eye.
During a pre-season in the US in his toxic final days at Manchester United, Mourinho said he was ‘just hoping to survive and not have some very ugly results,’ while offering sympathy to winger Alexis Sanchez for having to deal with ‘these players he has around him’.
Then, two years ago, he directed a foul-mouthed rant to referee Anthony Taylor in the car park in Budapest after his Roma side lost the Europa League final to Sevilla on penalties.
As Chelsea boss, Mourinho was at his peak in terms of his powers and confrontations
Intimidating match officials is something of a specialist subject. His repeated criticism of the standard of referees in Turkey has been a recurring theme since he took the Fenerbahce job last summer with his latest outburst costing him a fine and four-game ban which was subsequently halved.
Mourinho’s ongoing criticism of the standard of officials led to Slovenian Slavko Vinci’s taking charge of the latest derby from which the allegations of racism stemmed.
On Turkish football in general last November, he said: ‘Nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league. Why should they see this? It’s too grey, it’s too dark, smells bad.’ There’s nothing quite like selling your own product, is there?
So, if it’s quite so unpalatable, why is he even there? This is a man who’s made more than £100million from sackings alone and turned down a more lucrative offer with Al Qadisiyah in Saudi Arabia to move to Istanbul. Therefore, the motivation can hardly be financial.
With the jobs within Europe’s top five leagues drying up for the first time since he moved from Porto to Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho seems to have settled for the next best thing.
Fenerbahce may be very much second tier in terms of their European standing, but their support is vast and passionate — just the way he likes it.
While their 19 outright titles is impressive, their last came in 2014, with Galatasaray — 24 championships and counting — the most successful team in Turkey. Building a siege mentality with an underdog was always right up his street.
The scale of the club also appeals to his gargantuan ego. Thousands of fans greeted him at the airport on his arrival and then packed the stadium to watch him sign his contract.
‘First of all, I want to thank you for the love that I felt from the first moment that my name was connected with Fenerbahçe,’ said Mourinho. ‘Normally a coach is loved after victories, but in this case, I feel I am loved before victories. The shirt is now my skin.’
Say what you will about the man, but he still knows which buttons to push. Those last six words were immediately splashed on to T-shirts which flew out of the club shop at their stadium in the Kadikoy district.
His appointment was greeted like the winning of a major trophy and you can well understand why.
Love him of loathe him, Mourinho changed the face of football. On the field, he won titles in four different countries and became just one of six men to win the European Cup/Champions League with two separate clubs. He is the only man to have lifted the three current European trophies.
Off the field, he spoke in headlines, often disparagingly of opponents, but was always compulsive viewing.
While his defensive football wasn’t to everyone’s liking, his ability to lead people set him apart.
At Inter Milan, Wesley Sneijder said he would ‘kill or die’ for him. Dejan Stankovic claimed he would have ‘thrown myself into a fire’ to please him.
Mourinho’s willingness to go to war on his players’ behalf gained him their unstinting loyalty and support. It was gang warfare with a football.
Fenerbahce are only too happy to celebrate his dark side. In the same club shop, there are clips of the Portuguese on a loop. It’s not a montage of him lifting trophy after trophy, however, but some of the myriad moments of controversy.
Maybe that’s indicative of where he’s now at. Still a big noise but not quite the winning machine he once was.
Mourinho still considers himself to be a Champions League manager yet hasn’t participated in that tournament since Spurs were knocked out by RB Leipzig in the last 16 five years ago.
Long gone are the days when he won the UEFA Cup and Champions League with Porto then turned Chelsea into the best team in England.
That Treble with Inter Milan is now 15 years ago, that storied La Liga triumph with Madrid over Pep Guardiola’s magnificent Barca side came back in 2012.
While he still won the Europa League at Manchester United and the Conference League with Roma, he was eventually sacked by both clubs with a forgettable spell at Spurs coming in between.
Although Mourinho has spoken of his hope of emulating Sir Alex Ferguson (one of the few managers he never fell out with) and managing into his 70s, that only seems possible if he’s prepared to work in inferior leagues to the ones his irascible personality once dominated.
The banks of the Bosphorus feel like the backdrop to his last credible job in the game. Rangers will be aware that he isn’t planning on leaving the stage quietly.
