No ordinary Jose: the Inter Milan manager puts desire ahead of genius
No way through: Lionel Messi may be a genius, but he was outnumbered by desire in the San Siro
What Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan so brilliantly demonstrated against Barcelona at the San Siro on Tuesday night was the oldest lesson in sport: put genius in a foot race with desire, and desire wins every time. Yet still some people keep putting the cart before the horse. Why are we so totally entranced by genius that we forget the thing that puts it on the podium?
Even those blessed with genius try to steer us in the right direction. Sam Snead was the sweetest swinger of a golf club of all time, but he used to get really annoyed when people complimented him on the fact. 'Do you have any idea how many hours I spend practising to make this swing look natural?' he would respond.
It's the same with Barcelona. They aren't the best team in football because of Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez. They're the best team when eight other outfield players are performing at the peak of their powers and doing all the dirty work to allow Messi and Xavi to do their thing.
Mourinho's talents as a manager all lie in the fact he recognises that a footballer who consistently turns in eight out of 10 performances is far better than one who gets full marks one week and half marks the next. He would never harbour an extravagance like Dimitar Berbatov.
Whatever XI Mourinho puts on the pitch, the one thing you can guarantee is they will come close to their peak performance. What they have to offer in terms of quality depends on how much money you give him to spend.
His healthy distrust of genius is obvious in his treatment of the 19-year-old Italian Mario Balotelli, supposedly the next this or that (fill in your own genius footballer from the past) but with whom he is always falling out because the teenager's attitude stinks.
The other night there was a telling moment when Balotelli ran 50 yards, only to waste it all with a hopeless cross into the crowd that drew whistles of derision.
Mourinho's reaction? He was thrilled with the boy. It didn't matter that the genius part of the equation had failed. He clapped his hands vigorously and waved his fist in encouragement because, at last, Balotelli was showing desire. Barcelona lost the game because genius, as is its wont, took the night off. Xavi was pressed out of the game and made headlines only for picking a row with Mourinho.
The Inter Milan equaliser came about because Pedro couldn't be bothered checking the run of Wesley Sneijder. The Italian team went ahead following a move that began when Messi decided he would rather plead for a free-kick after being fairly robbed of the ball than chase back.
No team are more in thrall to genius than Real Madrid, and where has that got them this season? To pay for all that genius they gave away Sneijder, the sort of fetch and carry merchant that allows genius to work.
No prizes for guessing which manager bought him. At the San Siro, while all those Real Madrid geniuses watched at home, restthe brilliant Sneijder turned in a man-of-the-match stint.
At the Masters earlier this month we had another classic example of the dangerous allure of genius when Tiger Woods moved into contention at the halfway stage. Oh, his genius is bound to take over now, ran the verdict among various sages in the media centre. But Woods couldn't win because he hadn't put in all the necessary hard work.
He hadn't played in a single tournament in the build-up and how it told on the final day. That's why Woods is playing this week and next, and will play at least one more event as well before the US Open in June.
What's going to happen at the Nou Camp next Wednesday? Let's say this: if Barcelona pull off a stunning comeback it will no doubt be Messi who will be hailed as the dribbling genius and Xavi the genius with the perceptive pass.
But it won't be either of those things that bring it about. It will be because eight other players have played to the peak of their powers to allow genius to flourish.
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