s@int wrote:All our yesterdays or all our tomorrows ?
Liverpool target Mourinho
By Graham Hunter
Liverpool want Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho as their new manager and have already sounded out the Porto boss about joining in the summer.
The Portuguese champions are resigned to losing the man who won them last season’s Uefa Cup and has taken them to the Champions League quarter final – and Mourinho has kept them informed about Liverpool’s offer.
The 40-year-old is Europe’s hottest talent, speaks flawless English and recently endeared himself to Liverpool fans by knocking Manchester United out of the Champions League – plus enraging Sir Alex Ferguson during a war of words which the Portuguese won hands down.
Porto believe that there has already been a direct meeting between the parties but think that Mourinho has not yet agreed to move to Anfield until he sees whether Porto can win the Champions League.
Mourinho believes himself to be ready to coach at the very highest level and has also been sounded out by Tottenham Hotspur.
At the time he said: “We were in Marseille for the Champions League and someone accredited to Tottenham spoke with me about moving right away to England.
“I told him if it was a proposition for next season then we could talk to see what could happen. But to play against Marseille and then start immediately at Spurs, I wouldn’t even listen to that invitation.”
But the Liverpool offer has attracted him at the moment and Porto expect him to accept and sign for them this summer it if no other firm offers come in.
One Porto director, who confirmed the contact but wished to remain anonymous, said: “Mourinho has done brilliantly for our club since he joined two years ago so we will not prevent him following his heart and moving to England. Our worry is that Mourinho is likely to want to take players like Paolo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho and Benni McCarthy with him which means the break up of what is a great team.”
Mourinho won the Portuguese treble of League, Cup and League Cup last season plus the Uefa Cup final in a 3-2 victory over Celtic in Seville.
This season Porto are unbeaten in Portugal, in the Cup final again, about to retain the Championship and set for the Champions League semi final after beating Lyon 2-0 in the first leg of the Quarter Final.
Mourinho started out as Sir Bobby Robson’s translator at Sporting Lisbon and Benfica and, despite no background in professional football, he was promoted by Robson to assistant coach. They worked together at Barcelona, winning the Spanish Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and the Spanish Supercup finishing second in the league to Real Madrid.
Mourinho stayed on at Barcelona when Robson left, confirmed as number two to Louis Van Gaal, but then moved back to Portugal after winning the Spanish title in 1999.
Brought in to save Porto in 2002 when the fallen giants had crashed down the Portuguese Championship the former language teacher worked the oracle and took them to the pinnacle of European football in under a year and a half.
Liverpool see him as the coming man of European football, someone who renowned as a master team-builder and a coach upon whom a dynasty can be rebuilt. Mourinho has often said that he desires to work for “one of England’s great sides” and is understood to have admitted that re-building Liverpool and returning them to Championship and Champions League winning form would be his dream.
28 March 2004