If you asked fans of major European football clubs to name one coach that was a proven winner, inspires players, galvanizes a dressing room, brings tactical order, defensive stability and has a personality to lift a whole club and its fans, I suspect a great many would answer: Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho: Both the problem and the solution for Chelsea
The issue that Chelsea Football Club and its fans find themselves facing in the midst of the worst run of early season form since the 1980’s is that, paradoxically, Mourinho is both the solution to the club’s problems and the cause of them.
Even before he made his extraordinary seven minute and ten second answer to Sky Sports following the 1-3 home defeat by Southampton, most fans could have predicted what he would say and could almost have written his post-match comments for him. The only surprising thing about his monologue was that he effectively called out Roman Abramovich and dared him to sack him.
Mourinho told the post-match reporter: “I think this is a crucial moment in the history of this club. Do you know why? Because if the club sacks me, they sack the best manager that this club had and secondly, the message is again the message that bad results, the manager is guilty.
“This is the message that not just these players but other ones before, that they got during a decade. I think this is a moment for everybody to assume responsibilities, I assume my responsibilities; I think the players should assume their responsibilities; they are other people at the club that they should also assume their responsibilities and to stick together. [Source: skysports.com]
To be fair to Mourinho, he has a point. Chelsea sacking managers every time there are bad results places no accountability onto the players. Judging by recent history there are many examples of player power deposing managers during Abramovich’s reign; Andre Villa Boas and Phil Scolari were quickly culled once it was clear that the players were no longer on side.
Grounds for Dismissal?
This time around, there would appear to be clear grounds for dismissal. Without going over well-trodden tracks, the handling of the Eva Carneiro affair has been a PR disaster for Chelsea. Mourinho, an executive of the club, verbally abused and insulted Dr Carneiro for carrying out her duties as a club doctor. In her role as a medical professional, her duty of care is to the player and his well being, not the tactical preferences of the manager. It is true to say that the media have focussed heavily on the treatment of Carneiro and less so of Jon Fearne, the physio who entered the field of play alongside Dr Carneiro. Fearne is now back at work at Chelsea’s Cobham training base, whilst Carneiro has decided to leave her post and is currently assessing her legal options. Mourinho was found not guilty of misconduct by the FA after a review of video evidence.
The team’s drop in form since winning the league barely five months ago has been spectacular. Since the New Year’s Day hiding taken away at Spurs, Chelsea haven’t played the open attacking style that was the hallmark of the first few months of the title-winning campaign. Instead, Mourinho reverted to type and built the team on a solid defensive footing, curbing the natural attacking instincts of his forward players, especially star man, Eden Hazard.
Team selection and transfer policy has been under close scrutiny by Chelsea fans. There are question marks over the signing of Papa Djilobodji who is yet to play a minute of football for The Blues and Baba Rahman, whom Mourinho maintains is not yet ready for the demands of the Premier League.
The signing of Falcao is one of the biggest under the microscope. Both Falcao and Mourinho share the same agent, Jorge Mendes, and the suggestion during Mourinho’s time at Real Madrid was that the super-agent held an unhealthy influence over transfer policy and no fewer than five Madrid first team players were in Mendes’ Gestifute stable.
Mendes has seen many of his players at Chelsea during Mourinho’s two spells such as: Ricardo Carvalho, Diego Costa, Falcao, Hilario, Nuno Morais, Paulo Ferreira and Tiago. (Maniche, Deco, Raul Meireles and Jose Bosingwa were also Mendes players but were not signed during Mourinho’s time in charge).
Whilst there are no suggestions of improper conduct in these signings, there is enough of a trend to make Chelsea fans question Mourinho’s decision to sign the out-of-form and ageing Falcao and let promising striker Dominic Solanke go on loan to Vitesse Arnhem.
By continuing to play the woefully out of form Branislav Ivanovic and Cesc Fabregas, Mourinho appears to have a blind spot on player selection. The treatment of Nemanja Matic against Southampton is a case in point that Mourinho has lost some of the magic of previous seasons. Ramires was easily Chelsea’s best player against the Saints but was replaced by Matic at half-time. The Serb was then removed 30 minutes later to allow Remy to come on as Chelsea chased the game, leading many to question the professionalism of the decision and the impact of this on Matic. The reaction of the Chelsea fans inside Stamford Bridge was a mix of surprise and anger.
This was discarded by Mourinho after the game as being a humiliation to Matic, but explained as merely that he didn’t want to substitute Oscar. The fact that Fabregas was on the periphery of the game and Ivanovic was being continually exposed by Sadio Mane and Dušan Tadić seemed to be ignored or not noticed by the Chelsea boss and many fans even booed when he removed goal scorer Willian, although it was later explained that the Brazilian winger was suffering from sickness.
The one thing Mourinho has always been able to count on more than anything else is the full support of the Stamford Bridge crowd. This past weekend was the first in memory that his name has not been sung inside the stadium. It could be an important sign that things are changing and supporters are no longer willing to put up with the blaming of referees and siege mentality tactics to deflect the spotlight away from Mourinho and his failing side.
The number of world class players not performing is a major concern. Chelsea were many pundits’ tips for the title and the lack of togetherness and startling lack of form must be attributed to something other than bad luck with penalty decisions.
Resolution?
Brendan Rodgers’ sacking at Liverpool appears to have removed the possibility of Jürgen Klopp being a viable replacement for Mourinho at Chelsea. The only other available manager with top European experience is Carlo Ancelotti, who for a variety of reasons is unlikely to want a return to Stamford Bridge.
The Chelsea board have come out and publicly backed Mourinho, with the man himself confident that he can turn things around.
“I want to work as always. I consider myself, you know, I have big self-esteem and a big ego – I consider myself the best. Leaving the worst period of my career, the worst results of my career as a professional hurts me a lot. [Source: skysports.com]
He is, for once, the ‘Inexperienced One’. Never before in his career has he had to face such a doubting of his abilities. This is why Mourinho is both the problem and the solution. He is the cause of the problem with his team selections, the decisions on transfers and youth development, the media war he provokes by blaming the referees for decisions when Chelsea lose, and the tiresome narrative of ‘everybody wants to see Chelsea fail.
However, he can also be the solution as there has been a big shift in the policy of Chelsea Football Club. There is no doubt that before Mourinho’s return a manager facing this present situation would already have his P45 in hand and be the next in the long list of ex-Chelsea managers under Abramovich.
The fact he has the full support of the club would mean a seismic shift in policy and of introspection. There is a need for Mourinho to look at his methods and prove that he is a good coach of players as opposed to a man who can only organise a team and demonstrate leadership. He must prove that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as coaches such as Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley, Renus Michels or Johann Cruyff. These giants of the game were the best coaches of their era before the cult of the manager came about in the 1990’s. His coaching credentials have never really been tested; mainly due to the limited time he has spent at any one club and the lack of pressure to develop young talent. His job brief has always been; come in and win.
This is the most testing time of Mourinho’s career and the most important time of the Abramovich era. In terms of developing a new, mature Chelsea, it is important that they continue to buy into building a legacy of youth development, and obviously see Mourinho as the man to lead that era. Whether he is good enough to do it is what remains to be seen. He has created these issues for himself, and there is only one man who can provide the solutions.
