There is a cynical theory that some Chelsea players actually want Jose Mourinho sacked. That they are not putting it in for him. That he has become the hoary football cliche — a manager who has lost the dressing room.
He denies it, of course, but certainly on Saturday Chelsea appeared sluggish compared to Jurgen Klopp’s revitalised Liverpool. The BBC yesterday quoted an unnamed player saying he would rather lose than win for Mourinho.
So maybe there are voices agitating behind his back, players who do not like Mourinho or his style and believe that if this tailspin continues, Roman Abramovich will have no choice but to act, and jettison another manager. There have been tales of scurrilous nicknames for the boss and suggestions the team now tune out when he talks. And mutineers may think this run, against a background of dissent, reflects very badly on Mourinho — which only goes to show how daft some footballers are.
For there is another way of looking at this debacle — although it won’t have occurred to those secretly revelling in Mourinho’s downfall. It’s not him, it’s them. It isn’t Mourinho who is the obvious underperformer, but his team. Who has the true c.v. of substance here? Nemanja Matic, for instance, with his one fine season in English football, or Mourinho’s eight national titles and three European trophies across four countries?
What if last year, not this, was the exception? What if Chelsea overachieved when winning the league, swept along by Mourinho’s astute organisation and one last, inspirational turn from captain John Terry? What if 2014-15 is the only season Eden Hazard is Footballer of the Year? That makes Mourinho the genius, not the jinx.
He won the league with this lot? He won the league with a team now playing like the poorest champions in history? He won with single-season wonders, and old men, and players with a greatly inflated regard for their abilities and options?
If there are rebels inside Mourinho’s camp, this is what they have failed to consider. That onlookers — managers and owners at other clubs, in particular — will wonder what is the real Chelsea.
It was only on February 3, 2014, that Mourinho described his team as a little horse. ‘Needs milk, needs to learn how to jump,’ he said. By the end of the following November, Chelsea were six points clear at the top of the table. That was some giddyup.
It isn’t just Mourinho’s reputation that is suffering. Go through Chelsea man for man right now and consider how many would make the great sides of Europe — or even get into Manchester United’s defence or Manchester City’s front three? On current form, how many would start for Arsenal against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night?
And Hazard to Real Madrid? They don’t buy players on the back of one brilliant shift. Gareth Bale destroyed Inter Milan in October 2010 and it was September 2013 when he finally got his move to the Bernabeu. Between the young Cristiano Ronaldo starring in the 2004 FA Cup final against Millwall and signing for Real Madrid he played 252 games for Manchester United.
Sat in the Stamford Bridge stand, his Major League Soccer season at an end, was Frank Lampard. Now there was a player. He didn’t just have one great year, or a good half-season, like Cesc Fabregas. Time after time, campaign after campaign, Lampard delivered for Chelsea. He must have viewed this shadow of a team with quiet despair.
Lampard scored 13 goals when Chelsea won the league under Mourinho in 2004-05, then went out the following season and scored 16 as they retained it. Season after season his goals from midfield drove the club: 19, 20, 21, 20, 20, 27. That is the mark of a champion. Not this.
Maybe Mourinho has lost the ability to inspire his players. Maybe they are exhausted by the endless confrontations and demands, as Fabio Capello intimated. There are enough people advancing that theory, because the modern way is to hold the manager responsible for every fault. It is easier, after all, to change one coach than 11 players.
Yet there is a tipping point, a moment at which Chelsea’s form becomes so inexplicably poor that the blame cannot be placed with one man. Yes, Mourinho has made mistakes this season — but none that would adequately explain the extent of this collapse.
This is football’s equivalent of receiving a manuscript from Ian McEwan littered with spelling mistakes, or arriving at an Alfred Brendel recital to hear the piano played out of tune. It makes no sense.
Manchester United suffered after Sir Alex Ferguson retired — but only fell to seventh place. They were never in a relegation fight.
True, few mitigated Andre Villas-Boas or Roberto Di Matteo at Chelsea, but they did not have Mourinho’s sustained record of success. So let’s play devil’s advocate. What if Chelsea’s squad has been overestimated? How would that case be made?
Start with the Brazilian connection. Oscar, Ramires and Willian were part of a World Cup squad who were torn apart in their own backyard in 2014. Oscar, from a higher position than Lampard, has scored 19 goals in 100 Premier League appearances. Willian is tireless in effort but hardly a unique presence in the highest echelons of European football. Most Champions League teams have an energetic Willian or Ramires type in their ranks.
Matic and Branislav Ivanovic are Serbia internationals. Serbia finished fourth in a five-team group in the European Championship, behind Portugal, Albania and Denmark. Considering the talent at their disposal, Serbia are arguably the biggest underachievers in European football. Albania conceded five goals in that group, Serbia 13. Serbia let in 1.62 goals per game on average, the Faroe Islands 1.7. Not exactly belt and braces are they?
Kurt Zouma is young and lacking experience, Cesar Azpilicueta is a solid left back but hardly Roberto Carlos or even Ashley Cole, while Gary Cahill never looks as good for England as he does for Chelsea when John Terry is at the top of his game. And Terry isn’t at the top of his game. He may never be again.
Trevor Francis watched the Liverpool defeat and announced that Terry’s legs had gone, and it could be the superhuman effort of playing every game last season proves his last hurrah. A defender’s decline can be sudden. Rio Ferdinand hit a wall in his final year with Queens Park Rangers; Gary Neville was forced into abrupt retirement at Manchester United. Peak Terry is Chelsea’s true nonpareil.
It is his fading influence that is the key factor this season, and there really is no comparable replacement, even if Abramovich wanted to throw half a yacht at it.
Fabregas typically fades midway through the season — which was why Barcelona let him go — so Chelsea must be hoping his typical trajectory is reversed. As for Diego Costa, his petulant kick on Martin Skrtel on Saturday — it may earn another ban, and rightly — shows a player who does not engage with the team and their predicament.
If he put as much effort into scoring the goals to get Chelsea out of trouble as he does into acting up off the ball he could actually be of some use. Since January 20, however, he has scored six goals in 27 matches for club and country — against a sliding Southampton, Hull, Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa. A bully in more ways than one.
And, of course, this may be an unfairly caustic appraisal of a squad that won the title with reasonable comfort last season. Chelsea certainly looked convincing champions — and were damn close to it the season before. Yet a false reading of potential makes as much sense as imagining that one of the finest and most successful managers of any generation has suddenly forgotten how to win football matches.
Whatever fate befalls Mourinho, the players will not escape unscathed if this slump continues. Their reputations are on the line every bit as much as his and there will be professional consequences if it does not turn around. The world is watching and, whatever the mood behind closed doors, Chelsea should not be as bad as this.– Daily Mail