Jose Mourinho loses players and plot

Jose Mourinho has got the boot. Chelsea have sacked him not for losing steam in the title race but for keeping the defending EPL champions hovering around the relegation zone. A proud man like Mourinho would not like to take refuge in a euphemism, even though the club have attempted to couch the axe in “mutual consent”. In the span of seven months the world has changed upside down for the Portuguese. The implosion of Chelsea from a champion side to a candidate for the Championship, the second tier in English football, has been rather dramatic. Those who claim to have foreseen the scenario at the start of the season are as farther from truth as Chelsea are from the top of the table.

Mourinho’s elephantine ego would have taken a massive hit after being shown the door at Stamford Bridge. He can stomach failure to challenge Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United but to be told that he is not good enough to fight for survival with the likes of Aston Villa, Norwich City and Sunderland must have come as a bitter pill. For someone who never inhabited the lower half of the table wherever he worked, 16th place after 16 games must be an alien place indeed.

The circumstances under which Mourinho’s second innings at Chelsea has come to an end are vastly different to the way he left the club in 2007. The strained relationship between him and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was the main reason for his first exit. Now results have written his sacking orders. A defeat to table toppers Leicester City on Monday snapped the Portuguese’s second stint. The irony is it was from current Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri that Mourinho took over the reins of Chelsea in 2004. That Chelsea had lost to EPL debutants and fellow strugglers Bournemouth the previous week clearly demonstrated their inability to play teams at both ends of the table.

After the Leicester defeat, Mourinho spoke publicly about how his players betrayed his work. For the first time in his career the Portuguese pinned the blame squarely on his players. Maybe it was a ploy to expedite his exit from Stamford Bridge. Even though Mourinho tried to give an impression that he was up for the relegation scrap, it became obvious that the fire in his belly had died down. The most successful manager in the history of Chelsea was no longer the man capable of steering the club through choppy waters. Mourinho will, no doubt, rebound in some other big club but his position at Chelsea had become untenable. Losing the dressing room is more debilitating than an unenviable losing streak on the pitch.

Extracting the last ounce of energy and enterprise from his players has been the bedrock of Mourinho’s managerial success and the very source of oxygen pulled the plug on his life at the Bridge this time. The “Us vs Them” siege mentality he fosters at all clubs finally failed to deliver the goods. Shifting the blame from Mourinho to the misfiring team would be unfair. Both parties are equally culpable. The Portuguese is what he is today mainly because of his players. A manager who forges his reputation from the exploits of his players should also be ready to own up their mistakes. A great leader will never say: “Praise me for success and blame my team for failure”.

Mourinho fascinates people who don’t care two hoots about football. One hopes the charismatic man finds another job soon because a life in the midst of Manuel Pellegrini and Rafa Benitez will be as appetising as a post-lunch lecture on climate change.