Jose Mourinho’s love for Newcastle United is well documented.
Mourinho enjoyed a close relationship with Newcastle United legend Sir Bobby Robson after working with him at Sporting CP, Porto and Barcelona.
The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ initially worked as Robson’s translator but later established himself as a close coaching confidant.
Indeed, the Portuguese left such a good impression that Robson offered Mourinho the chance to coach alongside him at Newcastle United.
Sadly for the club, Mourinho rejected that offer because he wanted to make his own way in the managerial world. To say that self-belief was well-founded would be an understatement, with Mourinho going onto become one of the best managers in world football.
He will return to St James’ Park on Tuesday when Newcastle United host Benfica in the Champions League.
With that in mind, it is worth looking back on a decision that went against Mourinho and benefited Newcastle.
- READ MORE: What Newcastle United fans need to know about Jose Mourinho’s Benfica for Champions League game
Jose Mourinho stormed off after VAR call went in Newcastle United’s favour
Mourinho calls himself a “Little Magpie”, having developed a fondness for the club when working alongside Robson.
Still, not even he could stomach a controversial VAR call that went in Newcastle’s favour back in 2020.
At the time, Mourinho was in charge of Tottenham. Steve Bruce took his side to north London for a Premier League clash in September of that year and they fell behind to Lucas Moura’s opener.
Spurs dominated the game and really should have put Newcastle away, although Bruce’s side would strike late on.
In the dying embers of the game, Andy Carroll’s header hit Eric Dier on the arm in the Spurs box and VAR duly awarded a penalty. It was a harsh call, given Dier was facing in the other direction and could have done little about it.
Such was his disgust, Mourinho walked away before the full-time whistle after Callum Wilson had scored the controversial spot-kick.
After the game, even Bruce said: “The whole VAR and handball in particular thing this year is a total nonsense. And maybe we can all get together and stop it because we’re ruining the spectacle. We’ve got away with one today, yes, but it could have quite easily been at our end.”
Jose Mourinho’s record against Newcastle United
Mourinho may no longer be the force of old and even when he was in his managerial pomp, he did not boast the strongest of records at St James’.
Spurs beat Newcastle 3-1 on Tyneside in July 2020 and that was his first Premier League victory there in eight attempts.
In total, Mourinho has won 11 of his 21 games against Newcastle as manager of Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham. He’s lost five of them, while drawing the other five.
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