Aitor Karanka says working alongside Jose Mourinho in Spain; he understood that straightforwardness is very important when you are coaching a team.
Karanka moved from Spain to England with Mourinho in 2013, but, the two joined different clubs.
While, Karanka landed his first management job at the senior level at Middlesbrough, Mourinho renewed his association with his former employers at Chelsea.
As per Karanka, he saw Mourinho always be honest with the players without worrying if somebody was getting offended by his straightforwardness and he liked that quality.
This year, Karanka would be in direct competition with Mourinho for the first time as his team is in Premiership now.
Praising his former boss ahead of the new season, Karanka said, “At times, the managers don’t want to get you down and speak you in a way which might sound good to you at that given moment, but, you understand yourself after a period of time that the those words were not real.”
“But, if you have a manager like Jose, you are never in dark regarding your situation because he does not mind saying the bitter truth at all if it is required in the interest of the team. In the end, everyone is working just for the team, whether he is a player or a manager.”
There were regular stories of rift coming from the Middlesbrough camp in May and it had also been speculated that Karanka might resign, but, the Spaniard banished the speculations and assured people that he had bonded strongly with everyone working at Middlesbrough in the last three years.
In Karanka’s words, “You can look at the stats. Twenty two points in last 10 matches, not a single loss. It can’t happen without proper tuning between the manager and the players.”