“I know Jose says that his next big thing is to build a legacy at a club, similar to what SAF has done at Man U, but I've never seen him as that sort of coach, and he has never acted in that way; therefore, I don't see this happening, ever†- mad mac (on the ‘Bring back Jose’ thread’)

It was William Shakespeare who told us ‘all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players‘, but had he been talking of football managers instead and been addressing an audience of Chelsea fans he could have stopped there because we, more than any other clubs’ supporters in recent times, already knew ‘they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts’. Therefore, when mac made mention of Jose never acting in a certain way it struck a chord with me, due in no small [bit] part to the assessment of the man in these terms. Jose acting? In any sort of way, for any particular purpose? C’mon mac, after Sir Alex Ferguson, the Sir Henry Irving of the current Elizabethan era of stage-managers, our Jose (I use the epithet with pleading intonation) is the next leading exponent, if not (God forbid) the understudy.

Indeed, ’The Stage’ analogy is well worth pursuing, as the English Premier League is nothing if not a major production in itself and United’s long running top-of-the-bill success has turned what was once an opportunistic Broadway into the narrowest of enclaves. More to the point, how has this domination, insidious as it is, managed (sic) to turn other good shows and production teams of undoubted ability and talented presentation into seasonal flops with such regularity over the last 20 years? The answer lies not so much within the ‘building of a legacy’ argument, but in an appreciation of what it took to achieve this constant star billing at the dismissive ’we-do-what-we-want’ expense of almost every other Premiership team, restricting them at best to the dubious privilege of having mere walk-on parts in the yearly remake of ’The Great MancUnian Scheme of Things’.

Of course, you cannot even look the part of legacy-builder nowadays without being given the stage to work on and the right lines to espouse. It also helps to have power and influence in every area of the auditorium, which in football parlance means a foothold within the FA (to allow greater freedom of speech without harmful rebuke) and the ear of a current head of the Professional Game Match Official outfit who has a history of handing out the on-pitch equivalent of Old Trafford rave revues, both in a previous life and through his present day minions. Acting out your ’Mind Game’ soliloquy in such surroundings has proved to be a piece of cake over the years for one knight only, plus several repeat performances on a swooning SSN revue service. Spot the difference when you compare this seldom barred Bard to, say, an arrogant Portuguese board-treader trying his own brand of methodology and hoping to bring a well established house down in the process and you realise that in this country it always requires the gravitas of a doyen, not the brazen cheek of a foreigner.

To put this legacy lunacy into context, in just over a week’s time we shall once again see how the youthful casts from both Chelsea and ManU act out the Youth Cup semi-final. This time last year we were bullied from pillar to post by opposition that was far too powerful, a geared-to-Premiership tour de force directed by Paul Pogba in midfield with a cameo role for Ravel Morrison, two players said to be the spearhead of a new generation that guaranteed a continuance of the Fergie legacy. So much for that billboard hype, as both have now left United, of own volition and violation of talent respectively, but what goes unnoticed is the recall and retention of old-stagers Scholes and Giggs to cover their potential roles in the team - hardly an example of Ferguson legacy-building in action, is it?

Fair enough, Jones, Smalling, Wellbeck and Cleverley are young troopers on show, but only two have genuinely come through the ranks and throughout the last decade I’d contend that the old boy has been playing the part of home[grown] builder, a smoke and mirrors role in a magic show that Jose could just as easily act out if he were given the same licence to deceive. This kind of deception may not be what we want at Chelsea [quite the opposite in effect] but, given a meeting of minds that results in acceptance of some stage direction from above, plus the usual improvisation that you get from a Special One, and a long-running performance is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Let’s face it, whether you think it an act or not, Jose makes great play of next-in-line legacy building and he would have scant reason to lie when on the brink of returning to [what he regards as] the Big Stage.

That said, there is also the audience to consider. Not the bums-on-seats theatre of dream-goers, but the critics, the revue merchants who hack away at poor portrayals, unless they’re delivered by the modern day Henry Irving playing Red Devils advocate to a press gallery too afraid to heckle or show the remotest inclination to throw rotten fruit - I know I would, given half a chance and a bagful of tomatoes. Regrettably, dissenters have not been allowed anywhere near the Old Trafford cheap seats for some while now, so the only way in is probably by display of a once-vetoed BBC press card, together with a promise to sing the praises of Salford at every opportunity.

The same right of free’n easy passage will never be granted to a Chelsea manager, be he good, sham or Oscar-winning actor, because at the moment in this Premier League it is a fact of life that you cannot beat the system, the guaranteed box office blockbuster, starring the Sky’s-the-limited edition matinee idol, the One, the Only, Sir Alex Ferguson and his performing Manchester United….just ask an already convinced Roberto Mancini, either when this season’s No End To Your Peers Success Show reaches its denouement, or when the Jose Mourinho auditions really begin in earnest.

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Fergie/Man Utd = Phantom of the Opera...big budget, massively popular and has been going so long that people can't really remember a time when it wasn't putting bums on seats..

Chelsea = Jersey Boys, the rags to riches story of a group of Blue collar boys, discribed as a gripping blend of drama and soulful music..Oh what a night, a big number which could refer to any one of our European heartbreaker evenings

Arsenal/Wenger = Les Miserables

Spurs Harry Redknapp = Legally Blonde ?

Spurs = What Stevo said

Edited March 9, 201213 yr by SHELLY

Spurs=C**TS

If the coaching merry-go-round puts Jose back in the hot seat after he left in 2007, it will be a testament to the old saying that nothing is impossible in football.

There seemed to be no way back for the “Special One†after his acrimonious split with Roman, but their contrasting fortunes since have seemingly opened the door to what would be a spectacular return to English football.

However, if the speculation linking him with a comeback turns out to be true, it might end up an ill-judged failure.

Having won two successive league titles, the Italian Cup and the Champions League with Inter Milan, Mourinho is now in a commanding position to win the Spanish league title with Real Madrid and possibly break Barcelona’s stranglehold on Europe’s premier club competition too.

Chelsea, meanwhile, managed a solitary Premier League title under Italian Carlo Ancelotti in 2010 after coming agonisingly close to capturing the 2008 Champions League with Mourinho’s immediate replacement Avram Grant in charge.

Should Mourinho return to West London amid the fanfare he so thrives in, nothing less than emulating the accomplishments of his first spell in charge, when he won two league titles, the FA Cup and the League Cup, will do for either success-hungry Chelsea fans or Abramovich.

Both parties will also expect him to finally deliver the “Holy Grail†that is the elusive Champions League trophy.

Can Mourinho live up to the huge expectations and his own billing of being perhaps the one manager in the unforgiving modern-day club football capable of achieving instant success wherever he turns up?

It is more likely that his second-coming might turn out to be a monumental flop, albeit through no fault of his own.

The growing strength of Manchester City and the ability of their arch-rivals and English champions Manchester United to stay at the pinnacle even when a decline seems imminent makes it very difficult for any Chelsea manager, including Mourinho, to mount an instant challenge for the Premier League title.

Likewise, Barcelona and Mourinho’s present club, Real Madrid, will in all likelihood be a mountain to climb in the Champions League for quite some time, even more so for Chelsea’s ageing squad which requires long-term rebuilding to be competitive again.

Luring his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo and the likes with him to Chelsea could give Mourinho something to work with at Stamford Bridge other than a mixture of stalwarts past their prime and inexperienced though talented youngsters such as Daniel Sturridge.

But even that is no guarantee of immediate success, as Mourinho duly found out when he joined an incomparably more resourceful Real Madrid side from Inter in 2010. Should Mourinho come up with the goods at the Berhanbeau, which would certainly help straighten out his reportedly deteriorating relationship with the board, he is perhaps better off staying there and steering clear of England.

Otherwise, it will take a very special effort from the Special One, with patience not being one of his or Abramovich’s virtues, to rekindle our glory days.