An excellent two part 12,000 word blog post by Jonathan Wilson recently circulating on social media called The Devils Party examined the factors that led to Jose Mourinho’s downfall at Chelsea.
This fantastic article inspired The Player Development Project’s James Vaughan and Dave Wright to discuss how a managerial legend like Mourinho could fail so catastrophically at the club that reveres him most. By looking a little deeper, beyond just tactics, to examine the experiences that shaped his character, drivers, attributes and flaws, can we identify what the catalyst was for this self-destruction?
Jose’s story may indeed be a cautionary tale, highlighting the motivational consequences of a focus on the extrinsic over the intrinsic: a focus on tangible, quantifiable success over subjective style and footballing vision.
After winning the Premier League last year, Jose Mourinho (without prompt) decided that this was the time to compare his achievements with Pep Guardiola’s. In the post-match press conference he said:
“For me, I’m not the smartest guy to choose countries and clubs. I could choose another club in another country where to be champion is easier.” He didn’t name Guardiola, but the reference was clear.
Was this self-promotion or self-defense? Who was this message for, the press or his chairman at the time? Was this a dig at Pep or a reminder to Roman Abramovich, who has reportedly courted Guardiola for years?
“You do not expect to hear these sorts of statements from one of the world’s most decorated coaches.”
Mourinho continued, saying:
“I choose a club where I was happier before and a country where you are happy before. I took a risk. I am so, so happy because I won another Premier League title 10 years after [my first] in my second spell at the club. I was champion at every club I coached. I came to Inter, Real Madrid and Chelsea. Every title is important, to win the title in Spain with 100 points against the best Barcelona ever was a big achievement that I enjoyed so much. Maybe in the future I have to be smarter and choose another club in another country where everybody is champion. Maybe I will go to a country where a kitman can be coach and win the title. Maybe I need to be smarter but I still enjoy these difficulties. I think I’m at the right place. I’m here until [the Chelsea owner Roman] Abramovich tells me to go.”
You do not expect to hear these sorts of statements from one of the world’s most decorated coaches. Someone confident in their abilities that feels at home at their club and has a sense of autonomy in their work would not need to make comparisons with another coach. However, we might see this behavior in someone who is controlled, manipulated, belittled and under-valued, who would have their defenses up and indeed go on the attack at an opportune moment.
“Trust, empathy and feeling valued are essential to motivation and psychological wellbeing.”
It has been shown that trust, empathy and feeling valued are essential to motivation and psychological wellbeing. Of course we can only speculate on the Mourinho-Abramovich relationship, but there does seem to be an underlying insecurity behind Jose’s words. Mourinho is adept at using the media and it may be by design that Pep, Roman and Barcelona are highlighted in this press conference – perhaps they are the source of his greatest insecurities?
In many people’s eyes Jose Mourinho is the most successful football coach of the modern era. However, behind the trophy cabinet, the harsh, brazen and confident exterior, the occasionally devilish tongue that lashed the media, the critics, the pundits and even his own clubs, lies a man who has his flaws and his insecurities just like anybody else. Perhaps these insecurities were intensified by Abramovich’s consistent courting of Guardiola: the man chosen by Barcelona ahead of Jose in 2008.
Jose’s rise was groundbreaking. He is not an ex-pro and he has had to fight for recognition his entire career. And at a time (his second spell at Chelsea) when his worth and his value as a coach should be unquestioned, he may have felt it was in fact repeatedly questioned by those at the top of ‘his’ club.
The numbers do not lie; by tangible measures Jose is the best. However by qualitative, less tangible measures – like playing style – Jose has never been considered ‘top dog’ by the masses. Does this needle him?
Reading between the lines, Abramovich wants more than trophies: he wants style. More specifically, he wants Barcelona’s style and their success. But undermining his head coach, creating a low trust relationship and controlling his manager will never create a Barcelona style dynasty, no-matter who the coach is (or how often you replace them).
Barcelona’s success and Jose’s success are, in many respects, polar opposites. Indeed many suggest that in recent years Jose’s football philosophy has become the antithesis of Barcelona, or what Jonathan Wilson termed the ‘Barçajax School’.
An extrinsic focus on winning will never be enough to maintain long-term motivation. This mindset is fragile, not least once the ultimate goal has been achieved
A key difference, then, is that for Jose success is externally evaluated. It is objective, not subjective. It is trophies, points and wins. It is controlled, predictable and quantifiable. It is extrinsic. Success for Barcelona is less tangible; style and substance hold equal importance. It is this internal motive (intrinsic task mastery) that is required for the long-term development of a dynasty, the continual pursuit and evolution of a unique style of play for the team and individual players.
An extrinsic focus on winning will never be enough to maintain long-term motivation. This mindset is fragile, not least once the ultimate goal has been achieved – the championship. Jose’s focus on winning without a positive playing style may have led to Chelsea’s downfall, and arguably led to rifts with some of his more expressively minded players. These factors may have sown the seeds of apathy seen this season, and even in the limp end of the previous campaign.
Research suggests that an extrinsic focus creates an environment that stalls innate human growth tendencies. This premise is supported by the principles of the Self-determination theory. One of the key human growth tendencies is each human being’s innate desire to de-value extrinsic goals and replace them with intrinsic goals. We have an internal need for balance.
In a football context, attaining a footballing vision, entertaining the fans and playing with courage are intrinsic goals aligned to our innate growth tendencies as humans. These intrinsic goals are required to balance the world’s extrinsic focus on points, trophies, titles and money.
Needless to say, an extrinsic focus has complex and far-reaching consequences on our mindset / motivation and the mindset / motivation of those around us, such as chairmen, coaches and players.
You can learn more about the problem of extrinsic rewards and values in two excellent TED talks, which we link to at the end of this article.
The Beginning of The End for Mourinho
Jose Mourinho’s rise to managerial legend actually started in Barcelona after working under his father in Portugal. He was surrounded by some of the greatest mentors anyone could ask for, such as Louis Van Gaal and Johan Cruyff who were key figures in the culture that existed at Barcelona and shaped modern football.
But, in time, Barcelona would choose one of their own over Mourinho. In 2008 they chose a student of La Masia, a man who epitomised the Barcelona way and who had been a key component of Cruyff’s dream team. He was a man that had no coaching pedigree, no titles or trophies to his name. From Jose’s perspective, just having left Chelsea and laden with trophies, this must have been inconceivable – Pep Guardiola was a professional footballer, Jose a professional football coach. What Jose offered was tangible success, but Pep offered a footballing vision.
According FC Barcelona’s CEO at the time, Ferran Soriano, the club set out nine criteria against which prospective head coach candidates were judged:
- Respect for the sports-management model and the role of the technical director
- Playing style
- Promoting the right values in the first team and paying special attention to the development of young talent
- Training and performance
- Proactive management of the dressing-room
- Other responsibilities with, and commitment to, the club, including maintaining a conservative profile and avoiding overuse of the media
- Experience as a player and a coach at the highest level
- Support for the good governance of the club
- Knowledge of the Spanish league, the club and European competition.
Not many tangible criteria here and this is the foundation on which Barcelona’s success is built. They are famously ‘more than a club’, more than numbers and rankings: FC Barcelona’s ideology promotes more than good football, FC Barcelona promotes the development of good people in a world that often does the opposite.
We may speculate that Jose fell down on Point 2, 3 and 6. Points that are not essential for Jose’s definition of success but areas that are imperative to FC Barcelona’s definition.
The power of guiding values in football was best illustrated by Pep’s and FC Barcelona’s domination between 2008 and 2012. In his first speech to his players, Pep Guardiola re-addressed the extrinsic vs. intrinsic balance by re-focusing the group’s motivation with this simple statement: “The target is not to win titles, the target is to achieve a certain style of play, if we do this winning titles will be the most likely outcome.”
“Aligning with the focus at La Masia, Pep focused on engaging, empowering and educating his players.”
For Guardiola and his players, the focus became developing a unique playing style – winning was only a consequence. Aligning with the focus at La Masia, Pep focused on engaging, empowering and educating his players. Four years and 14 trophies later, winning had become a habit but never became the focus. Perhaps clubs, organisations, businesses and society in general should recognise that to reach our potential we need to focus on processes and organisational structures that engage, empower and educate. Rather than processes and organisational structures that reinforce an unhealthy, controlling and conformist focus on financial reward. At this point, blame can be laid at Abramovich’s door.
However it has been suggested that FC Barcelona’s preference for Pep over Jose has led Mourinho to dismiss the ‘Barçajax’ philosophy and foster a deep rivalry with Pep Guardiola. In his controversial biography of Mourinho, Diego Torres claimed that Jose had a seven point plan for winning big games.
- The game is won by the team who commits fewer errors.
- Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition.
- Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes.
- Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake.
- Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake.
- Whoever has the ball has fear.
- Whoever does not have it is thereby stronger.
“The man is also a master of manipulating his opposition, ruthlessly exploiting his opponents through his understanding of counter-attack and the transition moment”
Mourinho’s style was not to everyone’s taste – he became known for his defensive expertise, ‘parking the bus’ and strangling the life out of opponents. However, the man is also a master of manipulating his opposition, ruthlessly exploiting his opponents through his understanding of counter-attack and the transition moment, and this level of detail has to be admired. But if Roman Abramovich wants attractive attacking football, then Jose’s seven point plan, the anti-thesis to the ideology at FC Barcelona, wasn’t going to give it to him.
Fast-forward to December 2015 in London, and Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea is about to unravel. Jose has been under pressure all season; his players look lethargic, disinterested and lacking in cohesion or quality. Pundits are questioning their desire, their manager’s ability to dig them out of a hole and are wondering how long the axe will hang over Jose’s head before Roman Abramovich will make the call to end it all.
At this point, from the outside looking in, it appears there is a huge cultural issue within the club – a divide between two of the biggest personalities of the English football: the Chelsea owner and the manager. Shared values are the foundation on which successful cultures are built; contradictory values are the source of stress, division and apathy.
In relation to this, we know that small changes in positive meanings, emotions and relationships can have huge impacts through an entire organization. This is a theory called positive organisational psychology in sports, which shows that the focus in the boardroom – or clashes between boardroom and manager – will influence performance on the pitch.
“By the end of the week, he was gone.”
On Monday the 15th of December 2015, Mourinho fronted the cameras after his Chelsea side lost to the high flying Foxes of Leicester and announced that he felt his players had “betrayed” him. After one of the worst starts to the season of any defending champion, it appeared Jose had finally conceded defeat, criticizing the players who had only 7 months earlier been crowned champions. By the end of the week, he was gone.
Balancing intrinsic and extrinsic values is like sitting on a seesaw. And with the world’s values so heavily stacked in the extrinsic corner it also creates the ‘what next’ problem when the extrinsic goal is achieved. As coaches we have to provide balance for our players. Let the outside world focus on the extrinsic while we create a culture and an internal focus on intrinsic values.
Without a doubt, Jose Mourinho will emerge from the fire of the destruction in London very soon with a new job at a big club. A man with such a reputation and history won’t be out of work long in the world we live in which demands a quick fix and results. But after the quick fix, what then? Jose needs to learn to adapt. In his book ‘Legacy’, James Kerr references the All Blacks cultural essentials and states: “When you’re on top of your game, change your game.” Mourinho has the trophy cabinet of a coach at the top of their game – but if he wants to stay there and build his dynasty – and banish the ghost of Pep Guardiola – he has to start addressing the lack of balance in his values.
It will be very interesting to observe what lessons this football legend has learned from the last few months of turmoil and to see, indeed, what next?
Further watching
Dan Pink – The Puzzle of Motivation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y
Explains how extrinsic incentives inhibit complex problem-solving and motivation.
Tom Crompton – The conscience industry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcD3lS3Utew
Discusses the consequences of an extrinsic focus on behaviour and attitude.
