Friday, September 28, 2007

How special are you ? Lessons from Mourinho


José Mourinho the Manager of Chelsea Football Club was sacked last week. Although I'm not a Chelsea fan but what happened to Mourinho reminds us of some very important lessons...
  • You must never forget who your boss is
  • You must kiss your boss' arse and make him like you
  • You are not special, your boss is
  • Your boss' opinion of you, whilst arbitrary, is much more important that what others think of you
  • You can be replaced by someone else - talent can be bought.
In January this year, the BBC Sport reported, amid rumours that Mourinho will leave Chelsea, that John Terry said he was prepared to lead a players' protest to persuade the club's hierarchy (i.e. Abramovich) to keep Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.

I would like to say this to John Terry: John, you are a nobody. You're an employee just like Mourinho, if you wanna act like a "tai-kor" rebel, you will
also be sacked by Abramovich. All employees are replaceable.

For non-football fans read this first

For the the benefit of you non-football fans, I will elaborate a little on José Mourinho.
Mourinho is a very successful football club manager because he won four consecutive league titles (two at Porto [a top Portuguese football club] and two at Chelsea) and also the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup with Porto. Mourinho is also currently the most successful manager in Chelsea's history having won a total of six trophies for Chelsea in three years.

Mourinho moved from Porto to Chelsea in June 2004 becoming one of the highest paid managers in football with a salary of £4.2 million a year, subsequently raised in 2005 to £5.2 million.

He is referred to by the media as the "special one" because of what he said at a press conference after joining Chelsea: "Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one".

Despite being disliked by managers, players and fans of other football clubs in England, Mourinho is somewhat a folk hero at Chelsea.

His boss was Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire. According to Forbes magazine, Abramovich has a net worth of $18.7 billion and is the 16th riches man in the world. Abramovich is currently the riches man living in the UK. He bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003.

Abramovich and Mourinho started having some misunderstandings last year over the management of Chelsea. Despite José Mourinho achievements at Chelsea, Abramovich unexpectedly and without prior warning sacked Mourinho last week, 20 September 2007, giving some frivolous and lame excuse. Abramovich then replaced Mourinho with unknown manager Avram Grant. Note that Abramovich appointed Grant although Grant has no significant achievements in high level professional football competitions.

Post your opinions, please

8 comments:

Vincent on September 28, 2007 at 6:43 AM said...

Didn't like the guy a bit ... but he sure brought some 'colour' to the premier league, and some class to Chelsea FC.

Heard that Marco Van Basten will be taking over soon.

Peter on September 28, 2007 at 10:00 PM said...

The world is like that.

Those with money and power can do what they like...others have to just kow tow to the boss.

lampard said...

Just read that mourinho was invited to be MU's manager...hint hint ! poor ferguson's. hahaha

Jason on September 29, 2007 at 1:48 PM said...

I don't think he cares if he got sacked - "by mutual consent" hehehe. He definately got paid off hansomely millions....

Angie Tan on October 1, 2007 at 12:48 AM said...

great "tips"... LOL!!!!

no matter how "special" you feel, remember that there is someone more "special" than you.. the boss who writes your paychecks. ;-)

The Malaysian Life on October 1, 2007 at 11:54 AM said...

vincent - Yes, he did do great things to that club. But its a shame that his efforts were not appreciated by his boss.

Peter - Thats how the world works. :)

lampard - Its all about money. If you pay Ferguson enough he will probably resign from MU and become manager of Chelsea.

maybacks - Hahaha. Lots of people feel that way. But you have to admit that he is a good manager.

Jason - Yes he did get paid off but he committed his time and effort to building the team, and now, he's sacked.

Angie - You better practice those useful tips. LOL

ahmeng said...

thanks for this post. I was worked up trying to fight my boss when he shift the goal post.

Now I have cool down a bit.

The Malaysian Life on October 2, 2007 at 1:39 PM said...

ahmeng - fighting your boss is one of the worst things you can do for your career. Don't fight unless you have the support from your boss' boss. :)

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