Jose Mourinho and Newcastle United: A Clash of Styles
Jose Mourinho has never been shy of a touchline row or a barbed press conference. For two decades he has thrived on conflict, built dressing rooms on siege mentality and walked away from clubs with bulging trophy cabinets to show for it.
The question on Tyneside is simple: does that fit Newcastle United?
The 63-year-old Portuguese coach, a serial winner of Premier League and Champions League titles, has always preached the same doctrine – winning is everything. How you get there is secondary. In a results business, he deals in points, cups and parades.
Newcastle know the taste of silver again. The Carabao Cup triumph in 2025 ended a 70–year wait for a domestic trophy and, in two of the last three seasons, they have mixed it with Europe’s elite. This year has been different. A stumble into the bottom half of the Premier League has dragged scrutiny back onto Eddie Howe, the head coach who rebuilt the club’s identity and connection with the stands.
With pressure building, the old rumour mill has whirred into life: Mourinho back in England, Mourinho at St James’ Park, Mourinho in black and white.
Chris Waddle isn’t convinced that marriage works.
The former Newcastle winger, speaking to GOAL on behalf of Genting Casino, did not question Mourinho’s pedigree. “I'm not going to say Mourinho is a bad manager, he's won nearly everything in the game,” Waddle said. That is not up for debate. Mourinho is currently at Benfica and, as Waddle pointed out, “they're going to be up there because there's always three teams in Portugal”. There is even talk of Real Madrid again.
The issue for Waddle lies elsewhere.
“I just think that if you're winning, people will put up with it. But with Newcastle, you've got to win by entertaining. And let's be perfectly honest, Jose Mourinho over the years has not been an entertaining manager.”
That line cuts to the heart of the dilemma. Mourinho’s football is built on control, on risk management, on squeezing games to death. Newcastle’s support, especially in full voice at St James’ Park, has always craved something more open, more daring, something that gets people off their seats as much as it gets them to Wembley.
Waddle knows what happens when the results slow.
“It's about results, that's what the job's about. If he's top four in the league and he's still in the cups, they'll put up with it. They'll say he's great. If he's not, then they'll turn on the football style - not happy, don't like it, it's boring, he's going to get all that.”
Tottenham’s brief fling with Mourinho stands as the warning. “Tottenham tried it with him. Tottenham brought him in. We know he's a great manager, but he wasn't Tottenham style and Tottenham didn't like it. Tottenham got rid.”
The same tension would hang over Tyneside from day one. Waddle framed it in the starkest terms: “If you say to Jose Mourinho, ‘do you entertain?’ He’ll say, ‘no, I win trophies’. Do you want to win trophies or do you want to entertain? Unfortunately, there's a lot of clubs like Tottenham, Newcastle, who want both.”
That is the crux. Some clubs will accept grinding football if it delivers a title. Others demand a certain swagger as part of their identity. Waddle puts Newcastle firmly in the latter camp.
“I'm not just talking about Jose Mourinho, he's a fantastic manager, I'm not having a pop at him, I think he's a great manager, what he achieves is phenomenal, but certain clubs want to be attracted to a certain style of football, and that is not Jose Mourinho's thing.”
If Mourinho is the hypothetical, Howe is the reality Newcastle must decide on.
Waddle finds the speculation around Howe’s future surprising. The former Bournemouth boss has been in charge since November 2021 and has overseen a dramatic rise: Champions League qualification, that long-awaited domestic cup, a team that pressed high and attacked with intent.
“I think that if you win trophies, people put up with anything. If you're not winning trophies, it can't be any worse,” Waddle said, before nailing his colours to Howe’s mast. “I like Eddie Howe.”
His affection is rooted in history. Waddle played for Newcastle in the 1980s under Arthur Cox, in a side that went forward in waves. “We played attacking football, front foot with Arthur Cox. We got promotion with Kevin Keegan playing on the front foot and they loved it - as Kevin Keegan said! Kevin Keegan, when he came back, wanted to play the same way because he knew what the fans wanted.”
That tradition matters. “There have been a lot of managers since then who the fans didn't take to because of their style of play. Eddie Howe plays the Newcastle way. If there is a Newcastle way. I like Eddie Howe.”
The recent slump, Waddle argues, has context. The Champions League, with its travel and intensity, stretched a thin squad. “Won the League Cup a couple of years ago. They've had a bad run. The Champions League did take its toll on Newcastle's squad. It's proved that two or three years ago when they got in the Champions League - the league form always falters.”
For him, this is not the moment for a reset in the dugout. It is a moment for investment.
“Eddie Howe needs backing, he needs new players. There's a lot of old players there. There's some players who don't want to be there by the looks of it. Eddie needs to clear the decks and get five or six new players in. Whether he can or not, I don't know. But he needs at least five or six new players to freshen up that Geordie team.”
So the choice facing Newcastle’s hierarchy is stark. Double down on a coach who reflects the club’s attacking instincts and give him the tools to go again, or roll the dice on one of the game’s great serial winners whose football has rarely matched the romance of the Gallowgate.
Trophies or thrills? On Tyneside, they will demand an answer.
