We have seen and heard it all before, the jibes and banters of football teams, players and managers before a football match but the art of playing down , belittling the strength of your own team’s ability and readiness so that the opposition team would feel at an advantage and hopefully take their feet off the pedal is one facet of the game that has been employed time and time again to varying degrees of success and failures.
Reputable managers have employed this dark art before, most notably Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United who is quite famous for his dominance of winning Premier League titles between the 90’s and the 20’s and his longetivity at the helm of the club for 26 years (1986-2011). The Scotman had a long list of managers who he played mind games with to varying degrees of success, notably then Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan in the 95/96 season when Newcastle United were leading the Premier League table until a war of words erupted between both managers, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments that other teams like Leeds United and Nottingham Forest take matches with Manchester United more seriously than they do with Newcastle United, prompting Kevin Keegan’s famous ‘’I’d love it if we beat them’’ rant. Ferguson ultimately had the last laugh though as apparently his mind games worked as Manchester United stole the title from Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United on the final day.
Another prime example of Sir Alex Ferguson mind games playing a pivotal role in the race for the English Premier League title was during the 2006/07 season between then Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, with the Scot man’s verbal attack forcing a major ‘’ Facts’’ rant from Rafa Benitez
“I was surprised by what has been said, but maybe they [Manchester United] are nervous because we are at the top of the table,” said the Spanish coach. “But I want to talk about facts. I want to be clear, I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start.”
Although the Spaniard Rafa Benitez wanted to seem unnerved and unconcerned by Sir Alex Ferguson attack, this rant proved otherwise and that the then Manchester United manager had got into his head and Liverpool ultimately lost the league title to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United after a run of bad results in a capitulation that was reminiscent of Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United’s 1995/1996 season.
Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger was another manager who was not shy to enter into a mental battle of words between other managers as shown between encounters with (Yes, you guessed it) Sir Alex Ferguson and in later years Jose Mourinho, even going on a physical attack with the latter.
Fresh into the uncharted waters of English top flight in the 1996/1997 season after managerial stints in the Japanese league, it would have been wiser and probably understandable if the Frenchman steered far away from trying to get into the head of a seasoned pro like Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson but instead he jumped into the deep end and thereby produced some memorable pre and post match interviews between the Scotman, famously drawing the anger of Sir Alex Ferguson, with the legendary manager proclaiming ‘’ He’s a novice and should keep his opinions to Japanese football’’. These mind games nevertheless produced a never before seen rivalry between both heavyweight clubs Manchester United and Arsenal as both dominated winning the English Premier league title from 1996/97- 2003/04 until they were eventually trampled by ‘’The special one’’ Jose Mourinho, then Chelsea manager- another mind games specialist.
As earlier stated though, former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho is the manager most famous for mastering the art of mind games with the Portuguese using it over the years to a huge degree of success, firstly employing it while as a fresh faced manager for Fc Porto in the Uefa Champions League knockout stages against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United after beating Manchester United 2-1 with his Porto side in the 2003-04 Champions League second-round first leg, he responded to diving claims by Sir Alex Ferguson with infamous comments of his own claiming that the famous manager was just being bitter because he lost to a side ”that cost one tenth of the price” of his Manchester United side.
In later years Jose Mourinho would also go on a violent vocal attack in pre and post match interviews against then Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, famously calling out the experienced Frenchman of being a ‘’Specialist in failure’’ and a ‘’Voyeur’’.
Since then though managers with mind games specialty as part of their managerial arsenal have been few and far between, with former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp throwing their two cents in the ring now and then with little or no effect.
Mind games though, as effective as it has been over the years, has slowly become a dying concept. It has been replaced by generic smiling ‘’nice guy’’ managers producing bland and obviously rehearsed responses during pre and post-match interviews and even though it has become peaceful, old lovers of the game cannot help but miss those good ol’ days of liquid gold responses and passionate rants from football managers trying to blindside their managerial rivals.