Jose Mourinho stated that he is not worried about his Chelsea future and is under no pressure even though his side slumped to another defeat in the Premier League, the Champions lost 3-1 to Everton and now sit 11 points behind Manchester City in the league table. If that does not sound bad enough, this is Chelsea’s worst start to a campaign since the 1988 season.
The years under Jose Mourinho and with the money of Roman Abramovich have never started this poorly, the Russian, who has pumped billions into the team has seen the good days and the bad days at the club with the bad days ending with the sacking of the manager. Luis Felipe Scolari, Vilas-Boas Rafa Benitez, Avram Grant, Di Matteo and Ranieri, all were sacked; well Rafa was a caretaker manager, so he shouldn’t count in this list.
Jose Mourinho didn’t have the greatest of relationships with the Russian owner of Chelsea and was sacked in 2007 when things didn’t work out and Chelsea were in a bit of a slump. That time, as Mourinho stated, he wanted to try out his luck and coaching ability in other leagues such as Spain and Italy.
He has achieved a lot in those two countries, everyone remembers the treble winning season with Inter in 2009 and Mourinho did break the hold of the La Liga title from Barcelona. Mourinho is wiser than before and his return to Chelsea was seen as a homecoming of someone who was naïve and left a comfortable place for pastures unknown.
Having conquered all that was before him, coming back to England, to his beloved Chelsea, no one would have envisaged the start they have had this season, especially since they were Champions last time around. One thing that most people did predict was the lack of transfer activity at the club was going to hurt them. Every side in the Premier League has bolstered their squad, except Arsenal and that lack of fresh faces in the club is showing at Chelsea.
This could be due to the fact that Abramovich has decided to limit his spending and wants Chelsea to run on its own. It isn’t that Chelsea do not have players at the club, they do have 30 players out on loan to various sides all across Europe and some rather expensive ones such as Juan Cuadrado out on loan at Juventus.
Any talk of Roman sacking Jose should be squashed at the moment. There still are 33 more games to go in the season and the lack of confidence at Chelsea can take a dramatic u-turn if they start playing well. The Blues do have a Champions League tie coming up, which could provide the perfect catalyst for a good run.
Sacking Jose wouldn’t actually be the worst thing either for Roman, there is the threat of Jurgen Klopp waiting in the wings but the German wouldn’t work well with a demanding boss and had stated that he would not move to a ‘top side’ if he were to take up the reigns of management.
The relationship between Chelsea and Jose isn’t soured by a small blip in the season, he knows how to deal with it and with so many years under his belt, he should be able to take Chelsea out of their slump. Roman certainly shouldn’t think of sacking Mourinho, after all, he is their greatest manager from the Premier League era at least.