The following is an article written by Richard Williams of The Guardian U.K. , covering the unique status of Mourinho's management prowess and philosophy at Madrird.  Williams draws comparisons of Mourinho to his once hated cross town rival, a Frenchman by the name of Arsene Wenger.  Are Mourinho's locker room tactics effective? How large of his coaching philosophy is player psychology?

None other than José Mourinho, his old rival in cross-London derbies, was enduring a similar ordeal in Madrid.

A leak to Marca, the Spanish sports newspaper, revealed that on Friday, 48 hours after Real Madrid had lost at home to Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final, Mourinho ignited an incendiary exchange when he accused Sergio Ramos of giving away their opponents' first goal by failing to follow his orders to mark Carles Puyol. When the player attempted to explain why he had switched to marking Gerard Piqué rather than Puyol, Mourinho responded: "So you're going to be the coach as well, are you?" "No," Ramos replied, "but looking at the situation in a match, sometimes you have to change the marking. But you, you've never been a player, so you don't know what sometimes needs to be done in that kind of a situation."

Real Madrid are five points ahead of Barcelona at the top of La Liga, giving Mourinho a good chance of winning a title in his fourth different country. That is not enough for some supporters, smarting from a series of defeats by their Catalan rivals and resentful of his defence-minded tactics. While Mourinho's team were beating Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the Bernabéu on Sunday, the chanting of the coach's name by one section of fans led others to respond with derisive whistles.

"You've never been a player, so you don't know ..." Those words of Ramos's must often come into the minds of top footballers finding themselves at cross-purposes with a coach who arrived in the job without having played the game at the highest level. Both Mourinho and Wenger – like Roy Hodgson, Gérard Houllier, André Villas-Boas and others – will have encountered scepticism in their early days, and it may continue to lurk in the thoughts of a disaffected player even when the office of the manager in question contains a cabinet full of trophies.

Wenger was described only last week by George Graham, one of his most successful predecessors, as the greatest manager in the club's history but he has won nothing since 2005 and was jeered by his own supporters during the team's defeat by Manchester United on Sunday. When he watched the replays of the television broadcast he will have seen Robin van Persie's horrified reaction to the withdrawal of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, just after the teenager had created the chance from which the captain scored the equalising goal.

Mourinho is in his second year with Real Madrid, Wenger in his 16th season at Arsenal. The 48-year-old Portuguese is not a stayer, and it would be no surprise to see him moving to the next phase of his career by the summer of 2013 – or sooner, if he continues to argue with influential players. The 62-year-old Frenchman is different, having spent his time in north London rebuilding the club from top to bottom while imbuing it with his philosophy. Perhaps his current attempt to create another successful side while conforming to strict financial constraints will pay off eventually, but the crescendo of disapproval must surely be starting to affect his enjoyment of a job that brought him so much satisfaction and admiration, as well as a very good living.

Other evidence may point to more significant sources of disquiet. Van Persie's gesture hinted that the Dutchman may not be entirely happy with the course of events. The only regular contributor of goals in a low-scoring team this season, he has 18 months to run on his contract and would not be short of suitors. The much younger Oxlade-Chamberlain stayed on-message during his post-match interview on Sunday night but there have been suggestions that he is frustrated at not being given more time on the pitch since arriving from Southampton in the summer with a £12m price tag.

Are these real indications of fraying morale, or no more than the sort of thing to be expected from a side going through a tricky spell? Arsenal are still in the last 16 of the Champions League and it would be a brave observer who claimed categorically that Wenger is presiding over an irreversible decline. But all empires come to an end, and each ends in its own way, with immediate consequences that are seldom happy.

One common feature is that of emperors who hang on too long. Matt Busby and Brian Clough outstayed their time at Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, with damaging results, although the depth of the gratitude felt by their supporters meant that criticism was largely muted. But these are different times. The fans in the seats are paying more than £1,000 a year for their entertainment – at Arsenal, anyway – and the opening up of the media, from phone-ins to Twitter, has given them a taste for expressing their opinions without restraint.

Like Busby and Clough, Wenger has acquired enormous personal prestige and power within his club, particularly since the departure of David Dein, the club's former chief executive. When the time comes for him to go, whether it is next summer or in 10 years' time, there may be no one with sufficient authority or experience to give him the message.

Richard Williams is a U.K. based writer for the Guardian. You can read more of his work here.  Catch our daily show on deeper and more menacing Mourinho malaise, and world football analysis.