The longest drawn saga from last season’s Premier League has finally come to an end with Eva Carneiro settling her constructive dismissal claim against Chelsea on terms which are not being disclosed but it would be fair to say that the former Chelsea physio would be getting a substantial payment for the out of court settlement, but it all started a while ago, in fact many months ago when during a Premier League match, the Chelsea employee at that time ran onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard.
The problem was that Chelsea were down to 10-men and with Eva treating Hazard, they would be down to nine until the referee would allow the Belgian to get back to the pitch. It was then that Jose Mourinho lost his cool and started volleying abuses at the doctor. Speaking after the game Jose had this to say:
“I wasn’t happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game,” said Mourinho. “My medical department left me with eight fit outfield players in a counter attack after a set piece and we were worried we didn’t have enough players left.”
This was just the start of the problems for the Portuguese manager, he was widely condemned for his quotes and even then failed to apologise for his behaviour to the doctor. Things got heated up when Eva used social media to thank the support she was getting from all corners of the footballing fraternity.
It was in the month of September, almost after a month after the match against Swansea, that Carneiro stopped coming to work, even though she was asked to come back to work for Chelsea. Truth be told, not many would want to return to a side which does not value your service and the only wrong thing she did in the entire fiasco was run on to the pitch to help a player who was in pain.
Replays had shown that Eden Hazard wanted some attention when he was hurt and if Eva did not do her job, it could have ended worse for the Belgian star.
Trouble brewing for the Blues-
She decided to quit her job at Chelsea and was willing to slug it out with the club for a larger sum. However, the FA stepped into all this and in late September decided to clear Mourinho of all wrong doing and any claims of sexist abuse, something which did not go down well with the former Chelsea doctor.
In October 2015, Carneiro decides to take action against the club and later in November she even takes on Mourinho. The Blues don’t take things too lightly and even launch their defence against the former doctor at the club.
The tribunal started in January and finally ended after six months in June 2016, but a lot of damage has been done, especially to Chelsea and Jose Mourinho.
Many have claimed that the manager should never has responded the way he did when Eva ran on to the pitch in the first place. What was even weirder for a few was the way he was backed first by the club and then by the FA who went as far as to clear him from any wrong doing.
Carneiro on her part also isn’t in the clear as she did use the media to her advantage, but she was the victim here, but this long drawn saga would have affected her chances of other jobs in a similar field.
All in all, this saga has actually worked more to harm the future prospects of Carneiro while Mourinho and Chelsea more or less got off scot-free. Mourinho is still defiant as he takes on Manchester United next season and it will be interesting to see how he treats their medical staff compared to this one.