For two years, José Mourinho called the San Siro home, leading Inter Milan to two straight Serie A titles, a Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, and one of the most remarkable UEFA Champions League triumphs in recent memory.
Immediately after winning the Champions League at the Santiago Bernabéu – home of Real Madrid – against Bayern Munich, Mourinho didn’t even board the Inter team bus, instead staying in the Spanish capital to take over Los Blancos.
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Unfortunately for ‘The Special One,’ he was unable to guide Real to Champions League glory during his three-year stint in charge before heading back to the Premier League to retake control of Chelsea.
Now back in the hot seat at the new-look Santiago Bernabéu, 63-year-old Mourinho is set to begin his fourth run at Champions League glory with Madrid on Tuesday when they take on Inter in their group phase opener.
Previewing Tuesday’s home game, Mourinho said he felt no added pressure or sense of debt to Real given his previous failure to guide them to Champions League success. “No, it is two different spells,” he said. “When I left in 2013, we won what we won and lost what we lost, and we gave it our all. And that was that. What I need to do now has nothing to do with the past.
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“Back in 2010, we weren’t even reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League and it had been ages since we’d played in a semi-final. Now we’ve won six Champions Leagues in a little over a decade.”
Looking to lead Real to its record-extending 16th Champions League title, Mourinho believes the club needs a greater sense of stability if it’s to succeed this time around, emphasizing that this is something the club appears to be lacking upon his return.
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“I found a club that is always Real Madrid and that I think is enough to say. Real Madrid is Real Madrid. A Real Madrid that had a very complicated season in the past,” he said. “When you have complicated seasons, of course there are lots of things that you have to improve.
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“One thing is to work with a stable base. Another thing is to work with a problematic base. And that’s the case. And that’s the case. We want to win all the time. We want to win tomorrow. We want to win every game. We want to win every competition.
“But I repeat, one thing is a problematic base that you have to work to achieve a stable base. When you compare, for example, us with Inter, we are speaking about stability. We are speaking about a team that, even changing coaches like they did in the past six/seven years, stability. Stability. [Antonio] Conte. [Simone] Inzaghi. [Cristian] Chivu. 5-3-2. Dynamic. Stability. Structure. Marke. Stability. So Real has to go to the stability level, but independent of that, Real in Real. And in Real, is to win.”
Winning is something Mourinho’s side failed to do in their most recent La Liga match, having started the season with three wins in as many games before falling 1-0 at Real Betis on Friday thanks to an 81st minute goal from Troy Parrott.
