Jose Mourinho's larger than life persona may spell the end of his time as a manager at the top level of the English game.
Mourinho was fired by Tottenham Hotspur on Monday, putting an end to a tumultuous time in North London for the 58-year-old. Spurs had a winning percentage of 51 during Mourinho's 86 games in charge, with no trophies to show for his time at the club. It's a jarring statistic for a manager that has won virtually everywhere he's been, despite his polarizing reputation.
The Portuguese's firing adds another high-profile side to his growing list of past clubs, including the likes of Chelsea (twice), Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Manchester United.
With the news still making shockwaves, co-hosts Steve Bower and Greg Brady discussed Mourinho's legacy and future on the latest episode of "Shoot-Out" on DAZN. The biggest question facing the duo was whether Mourinho's time as a top-level manager is finished, but they also found the timing of the firing to be suspect.
"Why would you do it days before a cup final?" asked Brady, referring to Sunday's Carabao Cup finale against Manchester City. "We debated way back in August, we said, 'does Jose Mourinho need a trophy this year for Spurs?'
"As it turned out, it doesn't matter if his Spurs club gets a trophy or not."
Bower agreed that the timing was questionable, and feels that Mourinho deserves more respect from everyone for what he's done over the past 15 years.
"I think what we have to remember is this is a manager with 20 major trophies in five different European countries," Bower said. "So we we shouldn't be flippant. We joke, we have a laugh, [but] we shouldn't be flippant about Jose Mourinho as a manager."
Yet despite defending his storied past, Bower isn't convinced that Mourinho still has what it takes to succeed in the modern game.
"I did, Greg, see a lot of parallels at Tottenham with what happened at Manchester United. And, of course, in Manchester United he had those two trophies. He had the League Cup and he had the Europa League, and he had that second-place [Premier League] finish that he famously called his best ever managerial achievement," Bower said. "In terms of the Tottenham situation, he will turn around and say, 'well I've gotten us to a League Cup final just like I did at Manchester United and I wasn't given the opportunity to go and try and win that.'
"But what I mean is the whisperings coming out, the quotes from Jose Mourinho. What was that famous one a couple of weeks ago? 'Same coach, different players, different mentality.' You can't do that in the current game."
Bower notes that while Mourinho may still be a brilliant football mind, he has failed to show that he's the "Special One" for quite some time. And, according to Brady, that may be the last straw for Mourinho in England's top flight.
"I'm sure that's it [for Mourinho] in the Premier League, I'm pretty sure, because I don't see him managing Wolves someday and I don't see him managing Burnley, or even a more esteemed club, decades old though, like Newcastle," Brady said. "[He spent] 136 matches at Chelsea, 144 at Man United, 86 at Spurs. Kind of going in the wrong direction."
Watch the entire episode of "Shoot-Out" above or on DAZN Canada's YouTube page.