Jose never tires of paying homage to Largs lessons

JOSE Mourinho, Eusebio, Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello and Carlos Queiroz all walking into a pub in Largs need not necessarily form the opening line to a joke. The fact is that all five luminaries have been based in the west of Scotland seaside town while learning their trade or instructing others. It is a feather in the cap for an SFA-run scheme which is so often derided for being headquarters to an exclusive mafia.

Mourinho has been to Largs on two occasions in his quest for footballing nirvana. On the first as a young man in his mid-20s hoping to employ his love of the game in a more gainful way than as a workaday footballer in the Portuguese third division. The second time in the summer of 2000, when he gained his A-licence coaching certificate, the fruits of which not even he could have imagined would include the UEFA and European Cups within a swift four years.

The source of his coaching qualifications supplied the irony in Porto’s UEFA Cup final victory over Celtic last year. And the Portuguese club’s subsequent European Cup win the following season is significant, too, since it gave further cause to marvel at the most wanted manager in Europe’s coaching roots, which were planted in the same plot of Ayrshire land as the likes of Tommy Burns, Jocky Scott, Paul Sturrock and Alex McLeish.

Like them, Mourinho learned at the knee of Sir Alex Ferguson. Indeed, there was an element of acknowledgement in this as he skipped down the Old Trafford trackside to celebrate Francisco Costinha’s decisive last-minute strike against Manchester United in March: the apprentice had usurped the sorcerer.

"I know he has always said he enjoyed his time in Scotland," said Andy Roxburgh yesterday. The former Scotland manager is now a highly-regarded technical director with UEFA but was the driving force of the Large centre of excellence.

"I remember just last month I was coming back from the Champions League final and was at Dusseldorf airport. Some Portuguese journalists were there also, and approached me. One said: ‘Jose is always going on about his time in Scotland, he said it started him off, and was the trigger for his success in coaching.’ So it’s not coming from our end, it’s coming from him. I remember he spoke a lot about it before Porto played Celtic in the UEFA Cup final."

Roxburgh was there in the early Nineties when Mourinho first arrived in Largs. But no-one could foresee what might happen, not even Roxburgh. He mentions that so many have passed through the door of Largs - including former Real Madrid boss Queiroz and the revered Italian coach Capello - that you don’t know the influence it has "until much, much later".

Roxburgh has met Mourinho on numerous occasions since their paths first crossed in a Scottish seaside town, most recently at an elite coaches’ summit last September.

"Even to this day he is fond of recalling the time spent at Largs. He’s like an agent for us in Scotland. He’s always making polite noises about it. He came along with some other Portuguese colleagues. Eusebio had been invited before, so maybe that was the connection. He has often said to me: ‘the first step I made was coming to Scotland’. He was a teacher, and had that educated man’s will to learn."

Roxburgh admits it wasn’t only Largs which shaped him. Mourinho’s time by Bobby Robson’s side at first Porto and then Barcelona, when he acted as interpreter, was critical also. "He was the coal face then," said Roxburgh. "He had what was effectively his own private tuition by being Bobby’s communicator."

But his debt to Largs should not be underplayed. Self-confident in so many other ways, this Mourinho acknowledges.