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Ever wonder why well-known European soccer clubs keep hiring dated, in-decline, and mean soccer managers like Jose Mourinho?

(If you’re a fan of Jose Mourinho, I’d love to hear any counter arguments from you on our impression that he presents something like a case study in decline.)

Surprised to see ‘mean’ on my quick list of Mr. Mourihno’s shortcomings? It’s simply one of the more polite ways to describe a coach who is infamous for highlighting the shortcomings of his squads after almost every defeat.

But instead of adding to our quick list of Mr. Mourihno’s shortcomings, let me give you my 2¢ about the second question in this story: Why do well-known European soccer clubs keep hiring dated, in-decline, and mean soccer managers like Jose Mourihno?

My 2¢: Because those who run European soccer clubs tend to hire coaches they’ve heard of.

It’s easy to smirk or even laugh at the simplicity of that possibility.

Do you really believe that Jose Mourinho was hired at either Tottenham Hotspur or Roma A.C. (his second-last and current posts) after some kind of extensive search and analysis? What could such an effort produce other than the finding that Mr. Mourihno is both an in-decline (for a long time now) and a mean soccer manager?

Here are two quick reasons why I say that Mr. Mourihno is an out of touch soccer manager:

1. As of this writing, Roma sits in seventh or so place in Serie A (aka the top league in Italy), which is roughly where it would have been expected to be without Mr. Mourihno.

2. After Roma suffered a humiliating 6:1 defeat to Norwegian champion Bodo/Glimt a few months ago, Mr. Mourinho said that the reason why Roma lost was this: the Norwegian champion had ‘better players’ than Roma. Mr. Mourihno conveniently ignored that his reason makes no sense, as Bodo/Glimt plays in a tiny league and operates on a fraction of Roma’s budget.

BTW, does the name Pitso Mosimane ring any bells for you?

The Pitso Mosimane we’re thinking of is an African coach who in recent years twice won the African Champions League in soccer. And since Africa is a major source of amazing soccer players, you’d think his name would be much more recognizable by now, no?

When rumours of inevitable conversations among well-known European soccer clubs who are embarking on a search for a new coach turn up in the traditional media, why don’t names like Pitso Mosimane’s seem to get many — if any — mentions?

My 2¢: Because most journalists from traditional European media outlets tend to write about coaches they’ve heard of. Why do you think even your nana likely recognizes Mr. Mourinho’s name?

So, because it seems that people who run well-known soccer clubs tend to (mainly) hire coaches they’ve heard of, and because journalists from traditional European media outlets tend to write about coaches they’ve heard of, isn’t it time for someone in Silicon Valley to help them (as well as all of us) get more out of soccer by creating a Rotten Tomatoes for soccer coaches kind of platform?

(A handy reminder: Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation platform for film and television.)

Just imagine.. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to conveniently and quickly see soccer journalists, players, fans, etc. giving ratings to soccer coaches on their performance and people skills?

Feb 11, ’22