The conventional wisdom is changes have to be made before Christmas. But are Chelsea really at risk of relegation? And who could step in and do any better?
The special one is now the unemployed one
by 44 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It seems a bit mad. Klopp had a similarly disasterous start to his final season at Dortmund, but they had a strong 2nd half of the season and finished comfortably in the top half. No doubt they’ll join the chase for Guardiola in the summer, but Juande Ramos seems the most likely candidate in the short term.
I have just posted on this very subject. FWIIW, I dont see any danger of relegation & I believe they will finish in the top half of the PL table at the end of this season.
Any new manager (& I think they will go for a big name) will be given a virtually unlimited transfer budget & normal service will resume.
Mourinho? – Don’t know & not sure if I care.
Maybe it had more to do with him being an unpleasant dickhead than results.
There are also some fantastic (fantasy?) rumours / theories / groundless speculation on some football sites relating to the the sacked physio and losing the dressing room.
It all seems to start unravelling when he threw his medical team under the bus.
Yeah, it does appear that way Jim. He was being a total arse about the physio.
A £40 Million pay-off, if the Daily Mail is to be believed*
*yes, I know I shouldn’t believe everything I read, esp. the Daily Mail
Apparently Chelsea’s policy is to keep paying sacked managers until they find another job.
The £40m, as I understand it, is the total value of Mourinho’s recently signed 4 year, £10m a season deal, so that’s what he’ll receive (less amounts paid since the Summer) only assuming he doesn’t take another job between now and 2019. I would guess he’ll either wash up at PSG or the Portuguese national team long before then.
That’s quite a popular policy I think. A family friend was a manager of a more lowly premier league club, and that was the arrangement when he got the boot.
It is hardly an incentive to work hard, is it? Oh, things are going wrong. I’m getting all sorts of shit from the players, the media, whoever. Should I roll up my sleeves and work hard or say horrible things and get sacked. Either way, I’m paid the same.
It’s an interesting point. I worked with a guy whose cousin managed Huddersfield Town and he said that the first term to be negotiated was the exit package. The logic was that pretty much the only certainty you had as a manager was that at some point you’d be fired, and so it was prudent to build in a enough money to offset the inevitable, whenever it came. It’s a practice that is widespread in commerce too – I’m always bemused when my company recruits another high flying senior executive, at vast expense, backed by the promise of exponential improvements in profit. There’s always a rather comfortable golden parachute built in, just in case – 3 years worth of money is something that was the norm until recently – now it’s just a paltry 12 months.
Jose’s alleged £40m(ish) payoff sounds so generous that it could seem a disincentive to perform, but a lot still depends on the structure of the contract. It seems likely that there would have been payments tied to Premiership position and / or Champions League success. These may be part of the purported £40m – either way, he’s lost those. His share of media and promotional revenues, image rights etc may or may not have been lost too.
One of the best paid managers in football in recent times is likely to have been Alan Pardew. Sacked – and therefore no doubt paid off – by West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and Newcastle across an 11 year period, he was out of work for around 10 months. And given the way clubs – and fans – generally treat managers, good luck to him.
Tee hee! Reminds me of David Mitchell’s pooh-poohing of financial advice to invest in gold because “people will always need gold” – he points out gold is something nobody needs.
Golden parachute? I’ll take the other one please…
I must say I will be glad to see the back of him.
When Jose arrived, and then arrived again, I enjoyed his big personality and the witty soundbites. That seems like a very long time ago now, and his boorish, childish shenanigans this term have plumbed new depths.
I think the fact he has no humility and has to blame everybody but himself has turned the public, not to mention his players against him.
As nearly always in football, he will get a shedload of compo and go on to another prestigious job in which he will be generously rewarded.
“it was the ballboys wot dunnit!”
A confession: I really don’t like Jose Mourinho.
I don’t like the dour football his sides generally play, I don’t like the “winning is everything” mentality, I don’t like the lack of respect he shows to his rivals, I don’t like the crowing after a victory, or the finger pointing after a defeat. I don’t like it that he ran at least one ref out of the game entirely, that he got into a public argument with another manager’s wife, that he eye gouged Tito Vilanova on the sidelines. I didn’t like the way he treated Eva Carneiro. I didn’t like the way he spoke about the emergency services in Reading. I didn’t like his relationship with the British press, who worshipped him because he was always good copy and made their lives easier. Most of all, I didn’t like the way that when it all started to go wrong for him he chucked one player after another (not to mention his medical staff) under the bus in the most public manner imaginable. My most disliked quality in a manager is refusal to take some responsibility.
I know some will say he brought great entertainment value, and that’s fair enough. But I didn’t find him entertaining, just a regrettable symbol of all the nasty stuff that top level football has become – a horrible little bully who could dish it out, but never take it, and who sucked all the joy out of the game wherever possible.
In as much as I can ever be delighted for another human being to lose their job, I’m delighted he’s been sacked, and particularly that Claudio Ranieri was the one to deliver the death blow, having suffered all sorts of taunts from Mourinho down the years.
Mourinho has now had the boot from three of his last four jobs, has yet to develop any young player of note and has had virtually no success beyond his second season in any of his jobs thus far, despite enjoying gargantuan resources in most of them. I think the flame out which has been occurring since August (if not earlier) was almost entirely predictable – he creates an absolute cauldron of emotion for his teams to play in, and while it can heighten performances in the short term, it’s simply too exhausting to work beyond that. He will always move on to the next fight, the next feud, and when he runs out of people outside his club to ruck with, he will turn inwards.
Good luck to Chelsea with whatever they do next. I’ve heard Hiddink to the end of the season, but that could be wrong. I think they gave Mourinho an insane amount of time to turn it round, by modern standards – it was clear that he’d lost the dressing room some time back. I’m glad he’s out of the English game, for now at least, and I’m also enjoying all of the hacks who have overlooked his shitty behaviour down the years, and who less than 6 months ago were still trying to convince us all that this was a truly great Chelsea team and that Diego “Pies” Costa was world class, having their folly so comprehensively highlighted.
So long, Jose – you leave us with your litany of crap excuses still ringing in the air, and a squad of players who quite clearly loathe you. It’s Madrid all over again.
Ouch @bingo-little!
Jose’s not getting up from that.
I’m normally a live and let live type, but I cannot stand the man.
FWIW – I think the behaviour of Klopp last term really highlights everything that’s wrong with Mourinho: he was humble, defended his players and took all the blame.
Agree with every word, bingo. Thanks for saving me the time. Marina Hyde also did a wonderful job of trashing the odious, self-aggrandising little shit today. I think his career has to be on a downward slide now. Which major club side wants the aggravation that comes with him.
I thought the Hyde article was excellent, particularly:
“There are plenty of steadily loathed politicians I ended up feeling rather sorry for when it went spectacularly tits up – and often for more than three seconds. Yet the longer this goes on, the more my failure to feel the same as far as Mourinho goes makes me wonder: am I becoming a complete psychopath or is he really just an irredeemable prick? Will the pleasure ever become a guilty one or will it remain merely … pleasurable?”
Unfortunately @ianess, he will have no problem getting a job with a major club side, PSG or Bayern possibly.
Bloody annoying as it is, he is still ‘box office’, thankfully he won’t be soiling these shores for anytime soon.
One of the most intriguing things about him is that he began his career as Sir Bobby Robson’s interpreter in Portugal, and is on record as saying Robson taught him a great deal.
Could there be a more contrasting pair of human beings?
If Sir Bobby was still with us it would be interesting to see how he felt about his protege’s antics.
From the little I’ve read, I understand Bayern won’t touch him. He’s becoming so toxic now that I’d imagine most of the top clubs wouldn’t want their precious brands tarnished. Maybe one of the Italian clubs would welcome his poisonous personality and his immensely boring, throwback, catenaccio style football.
Agree with you about Robson who was always the consummate gentleman.
I’m not contradicting anyone here but coincidentally I’ve just finished reading Brian Glanville’s ‘England Manager’ . And he gives Bobby a right good kicking. Dithery, insecure, childish and ‘grotesquely over rated’ apparently.
Just shows you nothing can be completely taken for granted.
Yes, I have read that book.
Glanville writes well, but I think his opinion on Robson is narrow-minded.
My point really was the contrast between Sir Bobby’s demeanor and that of Jose, chalk and (stinky) cheese.
Absolutely spot on Bingo – agree with every word. The man is despicable and was even when the press were praising him to the eyeballs. Be interesting to see their comments tomorrow.
As for Chelsea there is a list of failed Villa managers they could go for – Mcleish, Lambert, Sherwood, Garde – oops sorry that last one has still got a job.
Klopp’s good like that. After the recent Newcastle game, a reporter brought up the disallowed goal – which clearly should’ve stood – and he said we didn’t deserve a point anyway so it isn’t important.
That’s a great post Bingo.
Any excuse to play this again. From 2007 and still relevant today.
If anyone can dig it up from anywhere, the interview he gave in ‘Time Out’ in about 2005 reveals that he’ll have a fantastic record collection to retire to over the next few months……not.
He’s got Bryan Adams on speed-dial apparently.
As David Hepworth tweeted tonight
“The Mourinho story has arrived in time to deliver us from wall to wall coverage of the new Star Trek film.”
So it’s not all doom and gloom
I think the seeds for Chelsea’s decline started last season with the cup defeat to Bradford City, which also contributed to the topsy-turvy nature of this season’s Premiership. No one is unbeatable any more.
I hope they make Diego Costa player-manager. Just for the laughs.
Jonathan Wilson has written an excellent, and very long, piece on Mourinho for Blizzard. In it, he suggests that Mourinho began to lose the dressing room last season during the cup game with Liverpool, when Costa stamped on Can. Apparently senior players recognised it was a blatant stamp and were bemused when Mourinho decided to publicly pick a fight with both Sky and the FA over it, and demand that they vocally support him in doing so.
Lots more on all the various chapters of Mourinho’s career here – excellent read:
https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles/the-devils-party/
This paragraph explains a lot, I think.
It also explains the bizarre eye-gouging incident. He knew that Tito Vilanova had more chance of being Guardiola’s successor than he did, as indeed turned out to be the case. Mourinho’s bizarre contempt for Vilanova makes no sense otherwise. When asked about the incident immediately afterwards, all that Mourinho would say about it was “Who? Pito Vilanova? I don’t know who that is.” (Pito is a Spanish children’s euphemism for penis, equivalent to “willy”. Oh, yes, a then-48-year-old man really said that in a press conference. )
Mourinho as the fallen angel is a good way of expressing it, but Mourinho as Anakin/Darth Vader might be more topical – even down to his own son being one of “them”: a Jedi. The story demands that Jose Mourinho, Jr., too must be a Barça fan, and that’s exactly what he is.
That was was some of the best writing on football I’ve read for a very long time.
Thanks
Great article – subscription taken out
I’m a subscriber too. Be warned, it isn’t all fascinating articles about the game’s big hitters. A lot of it is very, very hard going. But worth it!
Arsene Wenger will miss him.
and yet Sam Allardyce respects Mourinho so there must be some good there ?
I’va always found Mourinho’s career slightly baffling. Porto apart, he’s always been in charge of hugely rich cubs with enormous resources and yet plays such joyless football. Yes, he has won the Champions league twice and by now one would have assumed he would be more statesmanlike, sure of himself, got rid of that chip on his shoulder. But no, his behaviour this season has been truly bizarre, picking a fight with Eva Carneiro was just wrong and his failure to apologise just revealed him to be a nasty adolescent. His 2nd move to Chelsea is not what he wanted, my guess is that he wanted Manchester United and he’s been like a bear with a sore head since.
He will go down in history as a great manager because of his win record, but he will never be revered nor loved. Maybe he just doesn’t care about this, but I suspect he does.
There’ll be a job going at Leeds United soon Jose, don’t despair…
The Wilson article is very good, but this little bit of understatement says much about his attitude to the Newly-unemployed One:
“Porto won the league that season with a record points tally and also claimed both the Portuguese Cup and the Uefa Cup … they defended the league title the following season and also added the Champions League.”
How many brilliant and expensive players did Porto have at that time? For all of his faults, what Mourinho achieved with that squad was astonishing, yet the writer drops in that “and also added the Champions League” as if it is on a par with “and also added the Community Shield”.
Not much love for Jose on this thread, and that’s fair enough. But Ferguson and Clough, to name but two (rightly) revered legendary managers, shared many of the Special One’s less than pleasant idiosyncrasies.
And if we are getting on our high horse about JM, are we to feel similarly about figures such as Steve Jobs and John Lennon? Undoubtedly, both were arrogant, ocean-going shitbags who often treated people with contempt. But, y’know, they also had some redeeming qualities 😉
Sorry @bingo-little, but Martin Samuel has must-read articles on, like it or not, one of the hottest stories around just now. Go on, you know you want to. Ah go on, ye will, ye will, ye will. Sure they’re only small articles – you won’t even know you’re readin’ them…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3365135/Man-God-complex-MARTIN-SAMUEL-Jose-Mourinho-charismatic-genius-addicted-conflict.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3364811/Chelsea-players-got-Jose-Mourinho-sack-dare-start-winning-Thrash-Sunderland-risk-looking-like-cheats.html
I admire your persistence, Dougie!
This must have been a truly bleak week for dear old Martin. He’ll need to find a new hero now.
But I thought you said he was a West Ham fan?
Riddle me that…
It’s fairly simple: he writes bollocks for money, and in his spare time he supports the Hammers ; )
🙂
I don’t think there’s much love for Jose among the majority of his former players either. Cappello got it right – he burns them out with his constant creation of conflict, both within and out with the club. Cough was the master psychologist and remains pretty much adored by his former players; Fergie less so.
I pretty much subscribe to the theory that Jose was always so desperate to be the centre of attention because he’d never had any success as a player and envied the players for the acclaim they received.