Jose Mourinho says analyzing football in front of a screen cannot compare to the experience needed to become a top manager, in an apparent retort to “former top players” in England working as TV pundits.
Speaking to RT on his Champions League analysis show ‘On the Touchline with Jose Mourinho’, the Portuguese managerial great touched on what the route to the top involves.
“There is one part of it [management] that people sometimes forget, even some top pundits, they forget it, which is you have to be born with some talent adapted,” Mourinho said.
“It’s a little bit the same thing as what football academies can make with players.
“I think it’s a natural knowledge and understanding of the game.
“Leadership qualities, communication qualities, emotional intelligence,” he added.
“It’s another thing that technology, experience at other levels can’t replicate, which is the knowledge of the pressure you are under.
“One thing is us, in front of a screen analyzing a game live, and saying, ‘now I would take this one, and I would put that one.’
“That decision, when you are on the touchline, can you on the touchline have the same state of mind to be calm, to be an analyst, to read the game, to be brave enough to take the pressure?
“I used to say this, everybody in the world knows more about football than us.
“It’s the only job where the people know more than the specialists, and thank god it’s like that, because that’s why football is what it is.”
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Mourinho, 56, has been in management for around two decades, and has been at the helm at clubs including Real Madrid, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Manchester United.
During his last role at United in particular, Mourinho came under fire from former club legends such as Paul Scholes.
The ex-United and England midfielder himself recently took a brief foray into management at lower-league club Oldham, before quitting after just 31 days in the role.
Gary Neville is another former United player who has established himself as among the top TV pundits in the game, but struggled when appointed as manager at Spanish club Valencia in 2015, lasting just four months in the role.
Without referring to particular pundits or players, Mourinho said that analyzing games from the comfort of a studio or your home was one thing, bit that in the heat of battle, it was very much different.
“But the experience to be there, we have even in England, former top players, amazing in front of the screen, they go to football clubs, and after two months, goodbye, let’s go home because this is not right for us.
“So there are things you have it, or you don’t have it,” Mourinho added.