Chelsea sack manager José Mourinho after disastrous start to title defence

[the4thjuliek.livejournal.com]

José Mourinho said his work had been ‘betrayed’ at Chelsea by the efforts of his players. Photograph: Jason Dawson/REX/Shutterstock

Chelsea have parted company with manager José Mourinho. The Portuguese returned to the club in 2013 and won the Premier League title last season, but having sunk to 16th place in the table, the Stamford Bridge outfit have dismissed their manager.

Mourinho’s side have lost nine league games this season, the worst defence of a Premier League title ever. The latest loss was to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City, 2-1 at the King Power Stadium. Afterwards Mourinho took the unusual step of criticising his players. “I feel my work is betrayed,” he said. “I worked four days in training for this match. I identified four movements where Leicester score a lot of their goals and in two of the four situations I identified they scored their goals. I went through it all with the players, you can ask them.”

After the defeat it had seemed a matter of when, not if, Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich would act, with the club in real danger of slipping into the relegation zone over the crowded festive period.

When asked after the Leicester defeat if he could hold on to his job, Mourinho said: “The only thing I can say is that I want to. I have no doubts and I think you know me well enough, three years this time, plus three years another time, that I am not afraid of a big challenge, and in this moment this is a real big challenge. I want to stay, I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay.”


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Comments

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

One summer without a major signing and six weeks into the season, Mourinho increasingly began to look like that homeless old man on the underground shouting at commuters. Six years into his period of negative net spend (at one point, Wenger had spent -9 million after the stadium move when the amounts were averaged over several years) and Wenger looked as suave as ever in his Savile Row suits. And he never bullied his players, threw his medical staff under the bus (and think, for a second, how easy that would have been sometimes - even this season) and never once flirted with relegation.

I write with no aggression (and I am likely making points anyone in this thread would agree with - you included, as I see you are a fan of Wenger's) but I am making a serious point. If anything, Jose's closer observers would do well to realize that a single summer without brilliant signings or a refreshed squad finished him. He couldn't threaten his established stars with new replacements. He had no new (not yet exhausted) brilliance to work with. He only had some players he had alienated with his bullying.

It takes grace, flexibility, loyalty and some incredible management (man management, club management) to do what Wenger had to do before the tangible success started again two years ago.

Put bluntly, he's a serious manager, able to cope with periods of financial stringency, able to take responsibility for an organization for two decades. Jose is just a coach.

[untxi.livejournal.com]

Arsène & José have 1) completely different personalities, 2) completely different managerial & tactical styles, and 3) have been hired by very different clubs for very different purposes. this last point is the most important re: what you just wrote.

i think to compare the pressure Mourinho has been put under in his relatively short tenures in clubs like RM & Chelsea, with notorious revolving door hiring policies and who have ridiculously high internal and international expectations every single season, and the very relative pressure Wenger is under during his near 20 year stint at Arsenal, who clearly have very different end-of-season goals when compared to the other 2 clubs i mentioned, is a bit like comparing apples to oranges.

Mourinho was never involved in a long-term project focused on stability and financial restraint. one can like that or not, but in his own words & looking at the clubs he picks, that was clearly never his objective or a challenge he ever decided to take on. so to me the comparison isn't really applicable.

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

I would usually be inclined to agree - especially for his previous stints. But when Mourinho re-signed, he used the term "dynasty" - which makes me think that around 5 months ago, that was the feeling around the club. He'd be staying for a long time, bringing up youngsters etc... The length of the contract - even the obscene payout of 50 million Euros - suggests the club and the coach agreed this would be a "project". And perhaps that explains why there were fewer signings, and certainly less glamorous ones.

[untxi.livejournal.com]

to be honest, i (and i think most people outside, perhaps, Chelsea fans) never believed that. both because of Mourinho's restlessness and because Chelsea / Abramovich wouldn't magically change overnight from a trophy-hungry club into one patient & sensible enough to accommodate a manager with a long-term project. and them spectacularly chasing Mourinho out of the club at the first sign of trouble pretty much proves it. no, i think that was mostly a conveniently worded way of explaining Abramovich's backpedaling & something of an ideal 'excuse' for Mourinho for going back to a club that allowed him like no other (at least out of those available at the time) to do the thing he wants the most - win trophies - while simultaneously competing in the most prestigious league in Europe & staying in the country his wife and kids prefer.