Jose Mourinho Explains Why he Left Real Madrid Back in 2013

This forthcoming season, Jose Mourinho will take charge of Real Madrid for the second time in his career, having previously managed the club between 2010 and 2013. 

Having only managed Chelsea more than once in his career until last year, he has now done so with three clubs, having re-joined his first ever club as a manager, Benfica, in the autumn of last year, only departing the club because Real Madrid came back in for him. 

The consensus from Mourinho's first spell in charge was that he did a good job. He managed to win the La Liga title in the 11/12 season, ending a spell of three consecutive titles for FC Barcelona, and doing so as Centurions. 

He also made Real Madrid competitive again in the UEFA Champions League. Prior to his arrival, the club were consistently being knocked out in the round of 16, and were struggling to impose themselves on teams from the continent. 

In his three seasons at the club, Los Blancos managed to reach the semi finals on three occasions, and were pretty unlucky not to make the final at least once in that time. So, with that and the 100 point league title, a good job well done. 

Despite that, it did end in tears, with a trophyless third season, and a 4-1 battering away to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final second leg (before going very close to coming back in the second leg, it should be said). So, what went wrong? What happened for Mourinho to have left the club in the summer of 2013. 

Well, in his recently released Netlfix documentary, the 63-year old has (via MadridZone) revealed why he left the club 13 years ago: "I think the players got tired of me as a leader, and I was also tired of them. I too was fed up of them, not just them with me. 

I was fed up with the players and the press (media), it was a lot of pressure. When I left Real Madrid, Florentino Perez said to me 'Now comes the easy part, because we're going up, and Barcelona (are going) down, but I wanted to leave, I felt that it was over." 

Interesting comments, though it felt like that from the outside looking in. It was a great stint, but certainly one that had run its course. The team needed something fresh, and so did Mourinho, so it was clearly the perfect time to shake hands and part ways. 

Let's hope for similar success in the Spanish capital this time around.