José José!

Have you ever hated a person so much that ultimately you feel some sort of admiration towards a person? I hated Mourinho at first for his outspoken nature, stubborness and arrogance. But then eventually, I have started to admire him because of his intelligence and candidness. And of course, he looks a bit like my uncle in appearance.

Mourinho has one of the toughest jobs around in football. He has to win trophies - major ones, and that too in a consistent manner. He has Roman Abromovich breathing down his neck and is under the scrutiny of the press and the media more than any other manager.

Though he tries to be honest, more often than not, he shoots off his mouth and often gets into trouble for that, but I do like some of the comments he makes. Take this one for example where he defends his squad rotation policy by stating -

"If you have at home one Bentley and one Aston Martin, if you go all everyday in the Bentley and leave the Aston Martin in the garage you are a bit stupid"

His criticism of Tottenham's ultra-defensive approach after a 0-0 draw between the two clubs -

"They brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal"

He did a tremendous job at his previous club Porto where he won the league, Cup and against all odds, the Champions League. He arrived in Engalnd with a reputation to keep up and he did well in his first season by bringing the league title to Chelsea after a gap of 50 years.

The English media often waits for the oportunity to bring down a person and Mourinho too wasn't helping much with his arrogant attitude towards the F.A., referees and other managers. What helped Chelsea last season was Mourinho fighting to protect his players. The players never complained about anything and even if a bad decision went against them, Mourinho would be there to protest against that. I feel this helped that team perform better without losing concentration over petty issues which they knew the manager would take care.

Mourinho is still very young and has achieved a lot in his managerial career and has said that his ambition is to coach the Portugal national team in the near future, which I hope he does 'cos Portugal is one of the national teams that I like and I remember being very crestfallen when they lost to Greece in the Euro finals last year.

But I do hate him sometimes when he makes comments that have actually destroyed the referee's reputation and in the case of Anders Frisk, the referee quit officiating when Mourinho accused him of talking to Barca coach Rijkaard during the half-time break of last season's Champions League encounter between the two clubs.

Morinho does have tricky situation at Chelsea where he has to keep all the players in good humour by letting them play regularly. With Chelsea's expensive players unwilling to warm the bench and criticising Mourinho's rotation policy in public, the gaffer has a tough year ahead of him.

I will continue to admire him but I doubt if I can ever stop trying to hate him. For all his efforts in winning the league title and even if he is successful in retaining it this season, the media and the public will always try to undermine his achievements by stating money does buy success, after all!