Jose Mourinho Just Loves LA!

Over recent summers Jose Mourinho has completed the pre-season training for his players at University of California Los Angeles [UCLA] first taking Chelsea there for two consecutive summers - 2006 and 2007 - and given the results of the “Special One” in the Premier League club with two league titles and an FA Cup, it would be hard to argue that Southern California was not a good choice.

In 2007 the club trained at UCLA from July 26 - August 2nd with a group that included a number of internationals Michael Ballack (Germany), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Michael Essien (Ghana), and Joe Cole (England) who had all played in the World Cup that summer in Germany.

The super start players team trained on the Intramural Field and used the locker room space, weight room and training room facilities at the Acosta Center playing some ad-hoc matches as well as one against the MLS All-Stars.

In the summer of 2009 FC Inter Milan decided for the first time in its history to have pre-season training abroad - far from the traditional location in the Alps where Italian soccer teams generally completed pre-season - with Jose Mourinho choosing UCLA once again. The trip also allowed for some commercial opportunities with a timely ceremony to present the new Nike kit at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in downtown Los Angeles also included.

On returning to Italy Mourinho then set a season underway that would yield a trophy haul of a Scudetto [Serie A title]; the Coppa Italia and finally the Champions League at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on May 22^nd against Bayern Muenich – achieving a historic treble in his second season at the Italian club.

Not dissimilar to the Italian clubs Real Madrid in 2008, under Bernd Schuster, completed pre-season in Irdning in Austria as was customary and that season went on to win the League title. Last summer year the club appointed a new manager, Manuel Pellegrini, and then undertook a new pre-season training regime in Ireland at the new facilities at Carton House.

  

As the Madrid club now reflect on what can only be described as a disastrous season by their expectations - given they lost to Alcobendas in the Copa del Rey, were knocked out of the Champions League by Olympic Lyonnais in the quarterfinal and then failed to stop archrivals Barcelona winning a back to back La Liga title - and the manager also gone, the Club President Florentino Perez is now more determined to get the club back on track and has brought the “Special One “ to Madrid for that purpose.

With the arrival of the Portuguese coach the club now just await the details of his needs - pre-season and the list of new players - at a meeting on Friday where the club will sign off on most of the “Special One's” plans as he sets off to emulate his achievements at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan with the Madrid club.

In all likelihood the expectation is that Mourinho will elect the calmer environment and the backdrop of a disinterested US public in Los Angeles by using the extensive facilities at UCLA again, with proximity of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Hollywood as the balance for the super star players as they gradually adjust to his new regime. With an invitation to play in China after pre-season is complete the team would be perfectly located on the west coast of the USA to take up that option quite easily.

One event that has been confirmed is a match in Muenich where Real Madrid will play Bayern on August 13^th in honour of the legendary Franz Beckenbauer who has stepped down as President of the club. His 1974 World Cup final team-mate, Uli Hoeness, succeeded Beckenbauer as President of the Bavarian club with the “Kaiser” remaining as Honorary President of Germany's most successful club.

The fixture though allows Bayern's manager Louis van Gaal's a rematch against Jose Mourinho, whose Inter Milan side won the Champions League 2-0 against Bayern last month.

By then Mourinho should have completed his players preparations in the hills of Hollywood which Florentino Perez hopes will bring the blockbuster success he craves for the Real Madrid Club. 


History suggests that UCLA is the right place to start!