I was born on a day where my father had a match. My daughter was born when I had a match
and my son was born when I had a match. That's been my life.
There are many ways to be or
not to be. In my case, to be and in other cases, not to be. You have many examples of
people who apparently have all the conditions to be and then in the end, they're not. Without
one area of the formation, you are not complete. I used to divide it into three parts.
One is the academic information.
One is your experience and your understanding of the game that comes from
the experiences you had in the game. I think people that were big football players, they
have this part which I think is very important. The third part is your talent. That doesn't
come from the formation. It comes from your talent. It's like the school of art for example.
A person can go to the best school of art but then, if you are not meant to be, you're
not going to be and that, for me, is the most important part of it. It is in your blood.
It's genetic. It's in your DNA. You either have the talent or you don't have the talent.
My father was a player until I was nine or 10 and then he became a manager so when he
was a manager, I was 12, 13, 14, I was going into his world. The kind of discussion I was
having with him, the kind of little jobs he was giving me, in a generation where the coaching
staff were not like today. At that time it was about the manager and one assistant - that
was it. When I was analysing a position, I was analysing his own team when I was giving
him my reports. I think we both understood at the same time. He understood that I was that.
I understood that I had much more potential to be a football coach than a football player
which was what, at that time, every kid at my age was in love and that's what they wanted
to be. I think, especially in Portugal where there is a social environment that I, more
or less, can control. I can say there is a pre-Jose and an after-Jose. After my success
abroad, it starts a new generation of young people that want to be football managers.
Before that, in the 70s or 80s, every one wants to be a player. It was a case of that
but I understood that. My talent was on the other side of the game.
My coaching course
was three years of sports science but after that, two years of football methodology. Sometimes
the sports science takes us into a direction where it is sometimes difficult to understand
whether it is sports or it is a science. Football will always, always a sport, at least from
my perspective. It was really important for me and a new way to prepare yourself to be
a football manager.
The incredible thing was that because I was working in a club before
Porto - Leiria of course - I was working with a club which didn't have the financial potential to
think big, to buy big and to scout in the top places. I was really aware of lots of
young talent in smaller teams. We were not afraid to completely change direction of Porto
by getting the best young players from the smaller clubs in Portugal. We didn't get a
single player by spending millions or from a top club. Everybody was young, was hungry,
had big motivation, desire. When I started working with them in the next pre-season,
I answered a few question marks I had which was their psychological dimension to adapt
to a different reality and to cope with that pressure and responsibility to come from a
smaller team to one of the big clubs in Portugal.
Sometimes, you have to be lucky because you
can scout and scout and scout and I know that in these moments there are many complex structures
of scouting and sometimes complex doesn't mean efficient. If you use that complexity
to try to be efficient I think, yes, you have to analyse that side of the players, the best
you can to avoid the kind of surprises that people sometimes have. Even after investing
a lot, you can have surprises when you are facing a profile of player that you are not
expecting to.
I remember my question mark at that time was how that group of players
were going to face the atmosphere of a European final. I was trying to analyse it from the
moment we landed in Seville with everything around the final that was there. I played
a European final before that, when I was with Barcelona and only my Porto keeper, who was
also with me in Barcelona, had that experience of playing a European final. Everything around,
from when you land to the hotel, the people, the number of fans, the crazy atmosphere in
the city, the opposition fans. Let's see how these guys are going to react. I felt them
reacting in the best possible way and I felt that, win or not win, you cannot control but
you can control the way you are going to play, the way you approach the final. I remember
immediately that the boys were ready. We were winning 1-0 and they equalised and then we
went 2-1 up and then they equalised again and then you go to extra-time and it's hard.
Even for us, from the outside, it is really hard because a final is, in the majority of
careers, especially when you are in Portugal, you think that it is probably now or never.
You think that is a unique occasion. We were far away from imagining that 12 months later,
we would be playing a Champions League final. We looked at that match as the match of our
lives. That is the match of our career. We can take a European cup to our country, to
our careers. Even our careers, if you want to think about yourself, you can explode with
that achievement. We were there for that. I also think that Celtic was and they were
in the game and they were there to win. That's why it was an absolutely fantastic final.
So many years after, I tell the same. Sometimes the best investment that you can do is to
keep your best players. When, even now people speak about clubs spending x amount of millions
buying and that team didn't buy anyone, I always say: "Who did they sell? Ah, they didn't
sell anyone." So they kept all the top players they had. That is the best investment. In
Porto that season, everybody stayed. Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, (Nuno) Valente,
Maniche, everybody stayed from one season to the next and then it was just a question
to rethink the team, especially for that jump from Europa League to Champions League because
in the Champions League of course, we know you play against the best teams. Europa League,
which was the UEFA Cup at that time, was a different competition and we just had to give
that step but that step was based on the experience and the knowhow of the team. That
team was playing in Seville in the final and a few months later, we were playing in the
Champions League group stage and that was such a smooth transition.
The main changes
was that in the UEFA Cup we considered ourselves one of the best teams. In the Champions League,
we were not one of the best teams. When we were in the Champions League group stage and
get Real Madrid, and then in the first knockout we get Manchester United. In the UEFA Cup
group stage, we had a team from Poland, a Turkish team and, okay, Lazio and Celtic.
But the Champions League is the Champions League and we know we're not the best team and we
need to re-familiar our way a little bit and rethink our game. Many people think talent
is the only way to win football matches but there is also the strategic side of the game
so sometimes you need that. Maybe one day I tell everything about my career; maybe I
never tell but the night before that game, without knowing what was going to happen,
I was in the hotel in Manchester before the game and I had an agent take me to another
hotel to meet the CEO of a big English club - not the club I moved to. It was not Chelsea.
I had the doors open, even before that. Obviously, you do that, you win the Champions League,
makes it different. Different times because at that time, 2004/05, only two managers from
abroad come to England and it was the Champions League winner and the UEFA Cup winner: it
was me and (Rafa) Benitez. Different periods. Now, it is so much easier to come. At that
time, it was really difficult.