Jose Mourinho was once described as a breath of fresh air.
Jose.
Mourinho.
Now, all he is doing is sucking the life out of everything he comes near.
Somewhere along the way, the Chelsea manager has lost heart and it’s like the monotonous boredom with which his teams play is just acting out as a flair signal of his general feelings for the game at present.
Real Madrid broke him.
He went into the biggest job in world football – a job he had fully earned – and it got to him.
He declared war straight away. He tried to divide the Spanish dressing room, he shipped five in one game against his biggest rivals, his teams got even more conservative, his hair got even more grey, he stuck a finger in an opposing manager’s eye and he came out at the end of it all exhausted. Mentally and physically exhausted.
Three years of all-out war, pressure, controversies and scrutiny and Jose Mourinho left Real Madrid with one league title and a Copa del Rey. He could’ve done that without the shenanigans. Anyone could’ve.
To make it worse, the United job he probably had ear-marked for himself at that stage was handed over to a trophyless Scotsman and he had no option but to go back to a land he had long since conquered and to take on the same challenges he had already completed.
It’s telling. Very telling.
Okay, he’s put together a gorgeous team – one that was absolutely ripping through the league last season – but there’s nothing else he can really do with it now.
He’s just padding it out with decent players that will make for better Capital One Cup viewing – like a seasoned Football Manager gamer just searching for more fun somewhere. Just faffing about.
His controlling nature quickly spoiled the thrills of last season. Once his players got him into the driving seat, he elbowed them out of the way and tried to manufacture every single eventuality from there on in.
Chelsea stumbled over the line because their manager refused to let them off the leash and whatever it was – whether it was control, power or fear – it was the reason they exited the Champions League too early as well.
Since the turn of the year, there have just been a series of thunderclouds rumbling over Stamford Bridge when they should be the most celebrated side in England.
It doesn’t even feel right when you see them in montages or review clips because you don’t associate Chelsea, the league champions, with glory and success and joy. You associate them with Jose Mourinho.
And he hasn’t enjoyed himself in a very long time.
Before the league even started this season, he was on the defensive in press conferences, he refused to shake hands with Arsene Wenger after losing a glorified pre-season friendly and, here we are, one game into the campaign and he has already seemingly blamed his medical staff for not winning the first match because they ran onto the pitch with less than 30 seconds left of play.
And he’s starting the whole us-against-the-world nonsense because Thibaut Courtois conceded a penalty and was given a red card.
For fouling a Swansea player in the box with a red card offence.
Afterwards, he tried to detract from a super Swansea side by refusing to speak about the penalty incident. The audacity to suggest that there was any kind of injustice served to his side.
But, even after the dust had settled, Chelsea went and appealed the decision in a move which was, frankly, bordering on disgraceful – mostly just pitiful though.
Mourinho knew it wouldn’t work out for him but not because it was a ridiculous, undignified decision to get Courtois off, but because there’s a vendetta going on here.
“No, I am not surprised,” Mourinho spoke of the appeal being rejected. “I am not surprised because normally I know we are not normally successful in these.”
It’s got nothing to do with the fact that they are appealing decisions that they shouldn’t even have the option of appealing.
“What happened to Nemanja Matic last year against Burnley, what happened to Diego Costa against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup.”
Remember the Matic incident?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e852UDSWgTk
When the Chelsea player no doubt shipped a horrific but arguably accidental challenge but he got up and threw Ashley Barnes to the ground. The Burnley man the one who was actually in possession and passing the ball as the players collided.
Remember the Diego Costa incident?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpniB_8upG8
Yeah, Chelsea are being treated harshly.
There must be someone in the dressing room who is growing red-faced at all of this. Someone must be fed up listening to him and, honestly, if his media persona – and his touchline persona – is in any way similar to what he’s like on a daily basis around the club, Chelsea are headed for a disaster of a season because I can’t, for the life of me, imagine how any player could stick another season of his dark cloud.
He’s not the slick, smart, refreshing motivator he once was.
He’s been worn down, he looks bored, and he seems pissed off with everything he’s doing.
You can get him as long as 66/1 to be the next Premier League manager to leave. He won’t be the first but, Jesus, if he continues like this, it’s hard to see how he could last the season.
It’s hard to see how he would want to last the season.
What has happened to Jose Mourinho?
