Mourinho Extends Contract at Real Madrid: Why History Is Ominous for Los Blancos

When Jose Mourinho came to Real Madrid in the summer of 2010, the prospect of his tenure made him one of the most exciting additions in Madrid history.

After all, in the season that directly preceded this, Madrid had lost out on the La Liga title to Barcelona for the second straight season. At this time Mourinho had guided Inter Milan to the conquest of Barca in the Champions League.

In addition, the tools already in place for the "Special One" (Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, etc) combined with the great players he was sure to bring along and/or lure to Madrid (Ozil, Coentrao, etc) made him a valuable commodity without even factoring in his tactical genius.

Fast forward two years later.

Mourinho has led Real Madrid to two trophies: the 2010-11 Copa del Rey and the 2011-12 La Liga title.  In the latter, Madrid tallied 100 points, beating out second place Barca by nine points.

Madrid have also made it to two Champions League semi-finals in that time, but were eliminated at that stage in both.

To add to all this, Madrid seems to be improving as the years go by while Barcelona are staying as great as ever, but still the same.

Hence, when it was confirmed today that Jose Mourinho signed a new contract that would keep him at Madrid until 2016, the reaction was understandably positive from Madridistas, summoning memories of the promise of the summer of 2010.

However, there is one thing being overlooked in this reaction: Mourinho's managerial history.

In his just over 11 seasons of managing, Jose Mourinho has been with six different clubs.

Of the five clubs he has managed prior to his time with Madrid, Mourinho has spent more than two years with the same club only once...with Chelsea.

At Porto and Inter Milan, Mourinho left right after a Champions League victory at the end of his second season.

On the other hand, after failing to win the Champions League with Chelsea in his second season, Mourinho returned for a third.

In that third season, though, reports of a falling out between Mourinho and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich overshadowed the season.  In the end, Chelsea failed to win the Premier League that season for the first time in Mourinho's reign and the "Special One" was out less than a month into his fourth season.

Now, whatever the reason behind it, there is no denying that Mourinho's success over the past two years with the same club has been less than that of his first two seasons.

Maybe he got bored of the same challenges, a statement to how much today's society is based upon instant gratification.

Or perhaps it was merely caused by the problem he experienced with Abramovich.  If this is the case though, with similarly strained relations between Mourinho and Real Madrid's board and press, this contract extension could be setting up for a repeat of the Chelsea debacle.

However, whatever the case is, Madridistas should approach these next few seasons cautiously.

Under Mourinho, Madrid has the potential to reach European heights never dreamt of or seen before.

On the other, the situation also has the potential to get very ugly.

The promise felt during the summer of 2010 is still there, but it just doesn't quite feel the same.