For the love of Football: November 2008

For two lines to be parallel, they need to extend for ever, always equidistant and never meeting. Map the lives, ancestry and experience of Claudio Ranieri and José Mourinho on to two lines and you will find that they have never come close to converging.

One is the son of a professional footballer and a wealthy heiress whose early years were marked by privilege, until the fall of António Salazar, the Portuguese dictator, in 1968 signalled the end of his family's power. The other comes from a long line of butchers.

One failed in his attempt to become a professional footballer, working his way into management throughout his twenties, starting from the most humble of assistant roles. The other was the epitome of the honest, journeyman pro, featuring mostly for unglamorous Italian clubs.

One got his first managerial job at Benfica, a club who have lifted the European Cup twice, have more club members than Barcelona and a stadium that holds 65,547. The other started at Vigor Lamezia, in Italian non-League football, playing in front of a few hundred fans.

And, if you were to ask Mourinho, there would be another parallel to make. One has won four league titles, four domestic cups, a Uefa Cup and a Champions League in six full seasons of management. The other, despite having managed roughly three times as long, has only two domestic cups to his name.

This evening, when Ranieri's Juventus, who are second in Serie A, visit Mourinho's table-topping Inter Milan, they will face off against each other for the first time, although they have been adversaries for much longer. Indeed, you can trace the animosity back to April 19, 2004. On that day, both were in Monaco: Ranieri to prepare Chelsea for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against the local side, Mourinho to meet Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, who was offering him the opportunity replace Ranieri.

In Ranieri's version of events, that meeting changed the course of history: his and Chelsea's. He was made aware of it even as it was going on and, while he knew that his job was in jeopardy, the brazen manner of the meeting between Mourinho and Kenyon, 24 hours before a crucial match (with a potential Champions League final against Mourinho's Porto at stake) left him shaken and nonplussed.

So much so that, the next night, with Chelsea in control, the normally cautious Ranieri made a number of attacking substitutions, which resulted in his team losing 3-1 to ten-man Monaco. It was perhaps the only time in his career that Ranieri deviated from his script and he paid a hefty price.

So we are left with two men who make no secret of their animosity towards each other. In a world where people often hide personal feelings behind a curtain of clichés and football-speak, the resentment being so public strikes a strident note. And, in many ways, it is difficult to explain.

In the broader scheme of things, while they are in charge of two of Europe's biggest clubs, their briefs are different. Mourinho has taken over an Inter team fresh from three consecutive Serie A titles and, in net terms, last summer he outspent every manger in Europe bar one in an effort to deliver a team capable of winning the Champions League.

Ranieri took Juventus to third in their first year back in the top flight and is charged with leading them through a transition year. He is not expected to challenge for the title; a decent European run and a strong Serie A finish would be enough.

This evening, the coaches are expected to overshadow the wealth of talent on display. Both have bounced back after shaky starts, both have been put through the wringer by the local media, fans and even some of their squad.

What little common ground exists between these two men, you do get the impression that their existence will continue to run in parallel. And while they will physically come together this evening, in every other sense, “never the twain shall meet”.

Number crunch
71 Mourinho’s win percentage as Chelsea manager (P185 W131 D36 L18)
54 Ranieri’s win percentage as Chelsea head coach (P199 W107 D46 L46)
103 Mourinho’s run of home league matches unbeaten (five with Inter, 60 at Chelsea and 38 at Porto

Courtesy - www.timesonline.co.uk