Jose Mourinho’s trend of poor signings continues with Khedira

Jose “the Special One” Mourinho has six league titles and two European Cups from his last seven seasons. Special indeed, and serious success by any measure, but his achievements are marked by one strange, serious deficiency: his inability to identify decent central midfielders.

Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard were stalwarts of Mourinho’s three full seasons in charge of Chelsea, but both players were signed by Claudio Ranieri. This meant that Mourinho needed to make just a single signing to complete his three-man midfield. That man was eventually Michael Essien. So successful was Essien, in fact, that Mourinho went out and bought Michael Ballack, switched from three to four central midfielders, lost the title and got fired. Even then, Essien and Ballack were his best buys in central midfield – unfortunately, they’re not the only players Mourinho signed to partner Lampard and Makelele.

Tiago, Maniche, Jarosik, Diarra and Sidwell were all purchased for Chelsea on Mourinho’s watch. It’s true that Tiago was arguably a success, and Mourinho has since stated that selling him (at a loss) after one season was “a big mistake” – a description that could better be applied to the signings of those other four players.

Then, in 2008, Mourinho took over at Inter Milan and quickly identified central midfield as an area that needed strengthening. Thiago Motta had recently been released by Athletico Madrid and was available on a Bosman. Mourinho, of course, decided to sign the pedestrian Sully Muntari from Portsmouth instead. In the end, this decision allowed him the following season to sign Motta and Milito from Genoa for a considerable sum of money, plus four Inter players, plus a fine for Inter chairman Massimo Moratti due to the underhand nature of the signings. Sharp business.

And he hasn’t learned: now in charge of Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho has just purchased Sami Khedira (pictured), part of Germany’s bronze medal-winning World Cup team, for a rumoured fee of around £13m. The 23-year-old German-Tunisian was hailed throughout the South African tournament as yet another member of a young, talented and attacking Germany team. He was. However, it was mostly as a passenger: playing between Mesut Oezil and Bastian Schweinsteiger this summer, Khedira had the easiest job in football. He spent his four weeks running gamely but uselessly from box to box surrounded by a team of highly gifted youngsters and won his praise simply by association. Quite simply, his contribution to Germany’s success was minimal.

Khedira now looks as though is career is going to take one of two paths: a post-tournament flop along with Poborsky, El Hadji Diouf and Kleberson; or a maladroit midfielders purchased by Mourinho. Neither is a very appealing option.

(Photo: Getty Images)

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