The whump of pitchside flames, the tinny theatre of the Uefa anthem, a craning of necks, a rising crackle of power. And at last there he was out on the Stamford Bridge touchline, like some fond, long-lost determine rising from the steam, suitcase in hand, whereas Jenny Agutter says Daddy, my daddy and rushes in for a hug.
Besides in fact, this daddy is simply as prone to jab her within the eye, earlier than knee-sliding provocatively down the platform and making a sequence of borderline defamatory remarks in a press convention.
José Mourinho has been again to Chelsea many occasions. Why ought to this one matter extra? Maybe as a result of he won't be again once more. Maybe as a result of there may be additionally little or no else driving on these early Champions League mega-table video games, a workaday 1-0 Chelsea victory right here simply one other autumn footnote.
Both approach the entire event carried a bit extra pathos this time. Earlier than kick-off on the Fulham Highway the José scarves hung like ripe fruit, overseen by no less than one very stern José cardboard cutout. Earlier within the week Chelsea followers could possibly be heard throughout numerous platforms speaking in husky tones in regards to the return of the king, the paterfamilias, the architect of a pop-up mega-club.
Within the occasion Mourinho was performatively coy firstly, rising final from the tunnel, siting primly in his pitchside seat. No. Don't thoughts me. However he was up immediately as the sport kicked off, trying slick and trim in a basic Crombie-length overcoat and open-neck tailor-made shirt, like a tech billionaire on his strategy to a court docket listening to.
The group chanted his identify, as they did all night time on and off, and have been met immediately with a faux-humble wave. And this was mainly an opportunity to observe an previous bloke having a very good time on the market. Mourinho isn't actually a coach nowadays. He's a conveyable human fame occasion, a real-time José Mourinho occurring. Requested as soon as why he didn't search fame on the literary circuit Philip Larkin replied that he didn't wish to “go round pretending to be myself”. José, properly, José is the precise reverse of this.
At one level within the first half Enzo Fernández went to take a nook and was pelted with cups by the Benfica followers. It made for a great Mourinho second. There he was parading down the touchline, each palms above his head in a papal gesture, the peacemaker. Possibly José and never Tony Blair needs to be on the market defusing the traditional hatreds of Gaza. It will no less than be field workplace.
If there was one thing barely double-take about all this, like a dream the place your long-dead uncle is all of a sudden serving drinks and cracking jokes at his personal wake, it additionally felt oddly tender. The sport modifications. José doesn't change.
Though the factor that hasn't modified up to now two weeks is that Benfica should not an ideal workforce. They went 1-0 down due to Richard Ríos's personal objective, and stayed 1-0 right down to the tip, however nonetheless had sufficient within the second half to threaten the Chelsea objective. Mourinho will just like the spirit and the physicality. This membership was additionally his first job 25 years in the past. However he'll wrestle to create any actual Porto-style alchemy right here. Soccer is just too stratified now. You possibly can't make that leap up.
Is Mourinho nonetheless an elite coach? Virtually definitely not. In an odd twist the tactical climate vane appears to have swung again his approach. Energy. Set items. Headers. These are all scorching proper now.
However it's also a pointless query at this stage, and a typical mistake to imagine he has no wider legacy, no sphere of inflection over fashionable soccer. Pep Guardiola retains his tactical affect. However Mourinho perfected the opposite half of the trendy sport, the weaponising of stage administration and character.
His return right here was not a hangover from another world. It was bang updated, a bit of pure theatre, leisure product, a Mourinho Tuesday night time Vegas particular. Mourinho made these issues into very important components, the unique influencer, the primary clips man, the primary viral determine. Soccer as moments, character, present. That is simply as large within the fashionable sport as passing the ball again to the goalkeeper.
It is usually straightforward to miss that Mourinho has a second life as an avatar of web soccer authenticity. Younger folks get him. He has that very important high quality, aura.
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From early José, so absurdly good-looking he would most likely should be pixelated now or accompanied by a content material warning, to the late, stylish, cartel boss overlord look. All of this lives on in memes, clips, net heritage, the present mode as final-boss dropper of fact bombs.
It isn't onerous to see why his enduring fascination is perhaps certain up with a nostalgia for a extra vivid, much less orderly footballing panorama. The José years look fairly wild now. Mourinho as soon as threw a canine over a wall as a result of the police have been on the entrance door. Has Thomas Hurzeler ever achieved this? Is it doable to think about Arne Slot doing it?
There was in fact nothing pure about these occasions. Mourinho nonetheless speaks to the macro-oddity of the Chelsea venture, put in by a Kremlin-connected oligarch, with a founding period constructed on the whole absence of economic controls. London was turning into London-grad. Historical past had ended, Vladimir Putin was a taciturn man in a go well with, Roman Abramovich a good-looking playboy with a yacht.
In some ways what occurred with Mourinho and Chelsea occurred to all of us, a small sporting chapter of an unfolding fable of energy and shifting tectonic plates. After all seeing him right here in west London once more carries not only a theatrical energy, however a way of time passing.
On the finish he appeared a bit drained as he spoke about legacy and the previous in reflective tones.
However there was an extra irony watching this present Chelsea workforce wrestle a bit beneath the intricate promptings of Enzo Maresca. Here's a visiting supervisor who has all the things Chelsea's house owners need: star energy, eyeball-magnetism. But additionally all the things they may by no means truly work with: egotism, charisma, insurrectionary qualities.
Say what you want about Mourinho's gracelessness, his bending of the foundations. He's additionally obsessive about the sport, and with glory. Who would you moderately watch, the darkish lord in all his curdled energy, or a person with an iPad, a squad acquired like a inventory portfolio, the US imaginative and prescient of soccer as cellular leisure product?
