Real Madrid's José Mourinho will get another season to dethrone Barcelona

Posted Thursday, May 05, 2011 by theguardian.com

• Manager to meet club president after Champions League exit
• Florentino Pérez and fans back him for success next term

Real Madrid's José Mourinho will get another season to dethrone Barcelona
Real Madrid's José Mourinho has the backing of the fans despite their defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League.

José Mourinho will continue as the Real Madrid manager next season, despite his side's defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final and the fierce criticism he has faced during a fortnight in which he accused Uefa of conspiring to favour Barcelona and saw the side he was signed to defeat reach the European Cup final and all but clinch the La Liga title.

The Portuguese coach has a meeting scheduled with the club's president, Florentino Pérez, over the next week to discuss the season and plans for next year. The meeting was arranged before the semi-final second leg at the Camp Nou and sources at the Bernabéu insist that Mourinho's position is not on the agenda. The coach, too, has publicly expressed his desire to continue after a difficult first season on and off the pitch.

Real Madrid are eight points behind Barcelona with four games to go, having lost two of their past three league matches at the Bernabéu – breaking Mourinho's nine-year unbeaten home run in the league in the process. The Champions League has now eluded them, representing a huge blow for a coach who was presented simply as a winner, a guarantee of success.

There have been significant criticisms of Mourinho's style of play, with even the club's honorary president, Alfredo Di Stéfano, describing Madrid as "a mouse to Barcelona's lion". Although Madrid have publicly backed their manager, even going so far as to formally denounce Barcelona to Uefa, there have been concerns at board level about the damage done by Mourinho's campaign against European football's governing body and the tension and aggression that has surrounded this sequence of four clásicos in 18 days.

But Madrid have won the Copa del Rey, their first trophy in five years across two terms under Pérez. That trophy has been taken by the board as a sign that Mourinho can compete with the rivals he was brought in to dethrone. Reaching the Champions League semi-final is a significant improvement on Madrid's run of six years without progressing beyond a single knock-out tie in the competition.

Much has been made of Pérez's impatience with coaches at Real Madrid and his refusal to accept failure. Vicente del Bosque was sacked in 2003 after winning the league title, largely because of Madrid's Champions League semi-final exit to Juventus. Pérez has employed seven coaches as president since then. Mourinho is the first to win anything. It has been noted too that, under Pérez's successor, Ramón Calderón, Madrid sacked Fabio Capello after winning the league title.

This situation, though, is different. Mourinho's position has been strengthened throughout the year. The club's director general, Jorge Valdano, with whom Mourinho has clashed, has been sidelined. The Portuguese has been granted a degree of authority unthinkable for his predecessors.

Most supporters, who embrace his more aggressive remarks, are on his side too. Mourinho is the first coach to have had his name regularly sung at the Bernabéu. The coach's criticism of referees and Uefa have met with their approval, serving to excuse Barcelona's progression into the final.

Madrid's president and board find themselves in a difficult situation with Mourinho: they bet so heavily on his appointment, presenting him as the best coach in the world, that they believe they must stick with him. If even he cannot win, deeper questions would be asked about the institution. The support he enjoys among fans strengthens his position and his departure would leave the club's hierarchy, and especially Pérez, unprotected.

Mourinho's tone has changed notably of late. Earlier in the season his challenges and criticism were directed at the club and there was an ambiguity in his responses that spoke of a future elsewhere. As his authority and the degree of support has increased, he has begun talking about the future at Madrid.

Mourinho has insisted that his sides are always stronger in the second season. Despite the disappointment of the last week and his failure to knock Barcelona out of Europe, he will have the chance to prove it.