International head coach labels Jose Mourinho as ‘ugly’ in interview

The head coach of the Mauritius national team, Boualem Mankour, has explained why Jose Mourinho is unique when compared to most other top managers in the game today.

The Tottenham head coach may have won numerous major accolades across the best part of two decades, but that hasn’t stopped some people from questioning his decisions at Spurs.

Owing to the team’s poor run of form in recent months, some have suggested that the 57-year-old is past his sell-by date.

However, Mankour believes that the Portuguese coach deserves more respect than other managers because he’s had to work hard to establish a managerial career in the game, having not played at a top-level.

The experienced Algerian, who has held jobs in France, China, Tunisia, DR Congo, Turkey and Luxembourg, was asked to pick ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; among the current crop of managers in an interview with Onze Mondial (as relayed by Sport Witness).

Mankour responded: “The Good is Ancelotti (Everton). He’s very close to his players, they all appreciate him.

“The Bad, that’s Marcelo Bielsa (Leeds). I’d even say the crazy one. They said he’s crazy, but many have inspired themselves from him.

“And finally, José Mourinho (Tottenham), he’s the Ugly, the devil. He didn’t invent football, but he reinvented himself, adapt himself to every team.

“He didn’t have a great career as a player, but he studied a lot. He reads a lot of psychology books. He was clever, he’s a careerist.

“You can like him or not, but you need to have a lot of respect for what he’s done. We’re all a bit ugly when you’re a manager.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Some Spurs fans, as well as neutrals, seem determined to paint Mourinho’s brand of football as boring and negative. That, in my opinion, is not a fair assessment of Jose’s teams over the past fifteen years or so. Even at Spurs, he set the team up to play on the front foot in his first few games in charge. It was only after we suffered injuries to key players that he decided to take a more conservative approach.

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