Jose Mourinho seldom leaves a press conference with the media short of talking points, and that was certainly the case again both before and after facing Rangers in the Europa League last-16.
The fork-tongued Portuguese was spitting acid and a few feathers too after Jack Butland’s penalty shoot-out heroics sent Fenerbahce packing and set up a quarter-final meeting with Athletic Bilbao.
The visiting Turkish giants, Mourinho felt, were shafted by a VAR blunder in the second leg at Ibrox. Nico Raskin clipped a Fenerbahce player inside the penalty area during extra time. The contact was minimal yes but, as the saying goes, ‘you’ve seen them given’.
Mourinho’s frustration, though, was with the officials. Not with Rangers.
The former Real Madrid boss talked up his relationship with the Rangers fans in the build up. He will always retain a special place in their heart. That, his reward for breaking Celtic’s own hearts in that 2003 UEFA Cup final in charge of FC Porto.
And, while Mourinho praised the performances of Jack Butland, Vaclav Cerny and Cyriel Dessers – arguably Rangers’ three key performers over the two legs – the Fenerbahce boss also indicated that a spell in charge of one of the Old Firm giants is a box which perhaps sits unticked on his footballing bucket list.
Jose Mourinho to Rangers leaves former Ibrox men divided
While purely hypothetical at this stage, the prospect of Jose Mourinho sitting in the home dugout at Ibrox has understandably captured the imagination.
This is, after all, a coach with two Champions League winners medals and five European titles. A coach with Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Roma and Inter Milan on his CV.
“That would be unbelievable, wouldn’t it?,” gasps Si Ferry, co-host of the Open Goal podcast. On paper, certainly.
“That would be box-office for Scottish football,” agrees Andy Halliday, a Rangers midfielder from 2015 and 2020. “[I would take Mourinho] in a minute, for media alone!
“Honestly, he’d be box office up here.”
Yet, at the age of 62, the feeling these days is that the idea of Jose Mourinho may be a lot more attractive than the reality. Recent spells at Roma and Tottenham were largely underwhelming, despite a UEFA Conference League title at the former.
- READ MORE: Rangers Europa League Record Since 2017
Fenerbahce were ‘terrible’ against Barry Ferguson’s side
Mourinho, when agreeing the Fenerbahce job last summer, took on a role similar to the one which awaits Rangers’ next boss. The second-best of two local rivals. A team desperate to close the gap and reach the summit again, but without the same level of resources.
Fenerbahce are nine points adrift of Galatasaray in the Super Lig standings. He has not had the transformative effect expected, or required.
And the manner in which Mourinho was outfoxed by the novice that is Barry Ferguson in Istanbul – 3-1 to a coach formerly of Kelty Hearts, Clyde and Alloa Athletic – did little to dispel the notion that Mourinho the elite tactician has long since departed this mortal realm.
“[Mourinho’s Fenerbahce were] the most unorganised team I have ever seen!” Halliday admits, Rangers tearing them apart again and again on the counter-attack in the first leg.
If it wasn’t for two very tight VAR calls denying Cyriel Dessers an Istanbul hat-trick, Rangers may have claimed a 5-1 away win at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium.
“I think it’s got to be someone with a beefier CV. Maybe somebody that has had a good career, an ex-international manager or someone who has lost his way a little bit,” adds Maurice Ross, the former Rangers right-back.
“Like a Mourinho. I think, if Mourinho came, if he got the option at Ibrox, I don’t know…
“I thought [Fenerbahce’s set up against Rangers] was terrible. That does not look like a Mourinho side at all.”
Jose Mourinho may be tempted by Rangers job
Mourinho agreed a two-year contract with Fenerbahce last summer. It remains to be seen if he sees out the remaining 12 months, with this debut campaign promising so much but delivering little.
“But why not in the future?,” he said when asked about a potential future in Scottish football.
”People can say that the Scottish league is a league of two teams but it is a league of passion. It is a league of passion and for me, passion in football is something that for me is everything.
“For me to play in empty stadiums, to play in competitions where there is not that fire of the passion, for me it doesn’t make any sense.
”Celtic and Rangers they are big clubs with big fan bases, big emotions, big responsibilities, big expectations, why not?
”But in this moment I have a job. Celtic has a fantastic coach like Brendan. Rangers has Ferguson now so full respect to them and I am not searching for a new job.”
