Disgraceful Jose Mourinho wasn't sacked soon enough by Chelsea

Were Chelsea too slow in sacking Mourinho?

 

MANY professed to be shocked when Chelsea FC sacked their first team manager the other day, among them rival bosses, ranting pundits and club supporters.

 

I can't see why.

It was the fifth time this has happened at Stamford Bridge in the past eight years - with an interim appointment each time until the end of the season and then yet another new chap put in charge.

The pattern of panic has become indelible in the fabric of the club. They could sell it as Oligarch Tartan beside the famous blue team shirts.

Jose Mourinho knew all about the chronic instability of oil-money Chelsea when he agreed to a second spell. He knew the score.

 

He knew that the only manager who won the Champions League trophy for the club could be axed within a few months. He knew that results were everything and that even the mightiest reputation was a flimsy shield in times of trouble.

He knew better than anyone that loyalty is not a word which lingers in the lexicon of owner Roman Abramovich.

So, how could there be shock anywhere about the sacking of Mourinho, when his disenchanted team were 16th in the Premier League table, a single point above the relegation zone and scrabbling to sorry defeat after sorry defeat?

It was no surprise. And there should be no sympathy for Mourinho, absolutely none.

 

He has been a disgrace at Chelsea this season - from the opening match of the campaign, when he launched a cruel and intemperate attack on club doctor Eva Carneiro, to his monstrously arrogant press conference after the loss at Leicester last Monday, when he accused his players of betrayal.

Rarely, in the whole history of football, has the sacking of a manager been more justified or more necessary. Mourinho had not just lost the dressing room these past few months - he had lost the plot; he had lost his dignity.

Only he will know what possessed him to criticise Dr Carneiro so fiercely for merely doing her job and treating an injured player when waved on to the pitch by the referee.

Only he will know why he couldn't respond with a touch of grace and humility in the aftermath and admit that he had made a crass mistake.

 

The Eva Carneiro did not cover Chelsea or Jose Mourinho in glory

 

With that episode, Mourinho forfeited so much respect in the football world and beyond. You have to believe it also irretrievably tainted the way he was viewed inside the Chelsea dressing room.

His response to poor early results was to aim angry and hostile fire at referees. He went beyond the pale, goading the Football Association into giving him a stadium ban. It is a punishment the FA are incredibly reluctant to impose and it threw Chelsea's name into the gutter again.

The apologists for Mourinho, fans and pundits, claim we should tolerate his storm clouds of controversy because he also guarantees delivery of silverware. Look at his glittering success, they say.

 

Well, up to a point. The reality of the past few months is that for the first time in his career the celebrated manager had been in charge of a tormented team near the bottom of the table. The evidence was profound that he had no solution to this kind of crisis, none at all.

Mourinho's work was now heavy-handed - dropping star players, substituting others in humiliating fashion and all the while unwilling to take the slightest risk in fielding ambitious talented youngsters. Final proof of failure came in his conversation after the 2-1 defeat away to Leicester, the unlikely and thrilling Premier League leaders.

"I feel my work was betrayed," said Mourinho, when explaining why Chelsea conceded their two goals. He was openly blaming the defenders, veteran captain John Terry among them, for not following his precise instructions from the training ground.

 

It wasn't a slip of the tongue. 'Betrayal' is a vicious word and was repeated in three separate interviews. The moment it sprang from the lips of Mourinho, his swift departure from Chelsea was certain.

There was more. There was the sweeping self-delusion as he spoke about his team, who were such accomplished champions last year.

"Sometimes I find myself thinking that last season I did an amazing job, brought players to a level not their level," he said. The world of football gasped in amazement at this ultimate and shocking display of ego.

So, according to Mourinho, it was only his powers of inspiration that enabled Chelsea to win the title, not the skills of Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas or the goals of Diego Costa or the saves of Thibaut Courtois.

No football manager could survive in his job after airing such a sentiment, not even the miraculous Mourinho. He was sent packing a few days later, and the stark truth this time is that it was not a panic move by Abramovich but a decision the oligarch owner of Chelsea had already foolishly delayed for too long.