In the Tottenham Hotspur edition of the famed Prime Video docuseries, All or Nothing, the self-proclaimed “Special One.” José Mourinho was handed the rather difficult task of stabilizing a historically underachieving football club. One of Mourinho’s outlined duties at the club was to bring wunderkind Dele Alli back into form, as his struggles on the pitch were preventing Tottenham from actualizing their potential as a team. In a conversation with Alli, trying to make him understand the irretrievable nature of time, Mourinho says, “I am 56 now…and yesterday…yesterday, I was 20. Time flies. And I think one day you will regret if you don’t reach what you can reach.”
There is a sombre expression on Mourinho’s face as he delivers these lines. The scene reveals a man who has experienced time in a sense very few of us do. He’s a man who has ground his teeth out in the brutal world of European club football; who has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and one who has persevered, nonetheless. One feels for Mourinho as he talks to Alli. One knows that time has passed Mourinho by and, across his illustrious career, there must be a few regrets that he holds. One hopes that maybe one day, he’ll take us through a nearly three-decade long career across the best leagues in the world and tell us how he became one of the sport’s most iconic personalities. Quite disappointingly, Netflix’s new docuseries MOURINHO, is not that. The substance of the series is reflected in the very stylization of its title – the documentary is a loud all-caps on portrayal of the spectacle that is MOURINHO, and not the man that is José Mourinho.
Throughout the three episodes, the series takes us through Mourinho’s journey managing some of the greatest clubs in soccer history including FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Chelsea again. Briefly in the first episode, we get access to Mourinho before becoming manager, when he was getting his stripes as a translator to Bobby Robson at Sporting CP, Porto, and famously at FC Barcelona. “It was shit,” says Mourinho about the translator job. He notes that in his time with Robson, he was scouting, running drills, helping out in the gym, and doing all that an assistant coach does, all the while carrying out his duties as an interpreter.
It is evident that Mourinho is disturbed that the world may think he was merely a translator and that he is relieved to set the record straight. In a nutshell, that feeling underlies the entire series. Players speaking of Mourinho’s genius on the pitch, the star himself singing of his love, his passion for winning and for being respected, and people at large upholding his importance to soccer – all conversations that play out in an attempt to enlarge the myth of Mourinho. If you thought he was one of the great mangers, this series attempts to convince you that he was the greatest. If you were never fond of him to begin with, this series pleads for you to change your mind.
However, in doing so, it misses the sting that would humanize Mourinho and allow the audience to establish any solidarity or sympathy with him. Instead, the series, much like Mourinho himself, wants audiences to respect him, even when he was at his dirtiest, for as he proclaims, “It was always about winning.” He says that in real life he is not as rude, not as ruthless, but the game changes him because he is passionate about winning. It is a disservice, though, that while we hear this, we don’t see who Mourinho is in his real life off the pitch. It is a look at a conflicted figure through rose-tinted glasses and the outcome is a narrative that falls quite flat.
It is known that Mourinho’s career is a controversial one, having repeatedly been ousted from clubs, despite great success, and having never built a familial legacy at any of these clubs unlike his peers like Arsene Wenger with Arsenal, Sir Alex Ferguson with Manchester United, or Pep Guardiola with Barcelona and Manchester City. The series enhances Mourinho’s conduct as a lone wolf, crafting him as the misunderstood genius, always wronged by those around him but persevering with a mechanical discipline. However, for anyone familiar with Mourinho’s career, this portrayal rings as untrue and one-dimensional. Mourinho is renowned in the soccer world as an outspoken figure, one who has always looked out for himself, and while his conduct throughout the series reinforces this idea, the series attempts to construct him as a figure who always looked out for the club. The result is tiring.
As a manager, Mourinho had two famous rivalries – one with Wenger in the Premier League and one with Guardiola in La Liga, and while the series briefly covers both of them and we hear from Mourinho about his rivals, they aren’t featured in the doc at all. Beyond the players, who sing praises of this mammoth figure in football, there is no manager or a peer who undercuts this narrative, nor one who affords it some complexity. The series lacks an antagonist, which is ironic considering Mourinho had many quite public spats along the way. It is difficult to interpret this as anything other than an attempt for Mourinho to reframe his controversial career and talk about his rivalries and his stints at various clubs in a manner that vilifies everyone but him.
Towards the end, Mourinho says, “You are pushing me to speak about myself, which I don’t want to.” It was quite evident even before Mourinho uttered this line—with merely ten minutes to go—that he is only interested in speaking about himself, but more as a mythical figure than as a human. The comment plays into the narrative of the series altogether as it becomes a show for those unfamiliar with Mourinho, or who have never heard or seen the story of one of the most impressive managers in football history. However, for anyone familiar with Mourinho’s story on the outside, and looking for a peek within, the limited scope of this series is sure to leave you disappointed and unfulfilled.
