Serie A rely heavily on wingbacks to provide width which is why a player like Evra can shine in that league.

What other fast wingers are you reffering to exactly? Like I said, you'll get one or two wingers who get in a good season (Remember the second coming of Neved in Krasic? Remember Gervinho?) but they get figured out quickly. I think the reason it's not happened to Salah (although saying that, in the second half of last season defenders did suss him out and he became last effective) is because he's effectively playing as a second striker in Roma's system.

Fair enough. Haven't been following Salah but still think he just wasn't good enough for the PL.

As opposed to losing to the mighty title contenders known as Bournemouth and Crystal Palace?

Yet Hiddinks magnificent revival has used...well the same tactics, formation and players as Mourinho did.

It's almost like the problem was the players just werent trying that hard. Almost like the probelem was not actually related to how the manager set up the team., but rather how the players executed it on the pitch.....

Yet Hiddinks magnificent revival has used...well the same tactics, formation and players as Mourinho did.

It's almost like the problem was the players just werent trying that hard. Almost like the probelem was not actually related to how the manager set up the team., but rather how the players executed it on the pitch.....

When the players stop playing for you, they will stop executing whatever instructions on the pitch. His ego caused far too many players to turn against him on the field, for it to continue.

When the players stop playing for you, they will stop executing whatever instructions on the pitch. His ego caused far too many players to turn against him on the field, for it to continue.

Yup. The players all look world class right now [emoji57]

Yet Hiddinks magnificent revival has used...well the same tactics, formation and players as Mourinho did.

It's almost like the problem was the players just werent trying that hard. Almost like the probelem was not actually related to how the manager set up the team., but rather how the players executed it on the pitch.....

 

Minor adjustments can make a difference when your that bad, by putting mikel in and with him sitting so deep whilst also getting the defence to sit deeper it gave us some more defensive stability, then that relieved some pressure on the team so they could play with abit more freedom, snowball effect from there on out (albiet on a very gentle hill)

Jose is licking his wounds and knowing the man he is going to come back like a roaring blaze. Hes a born winner.

The saddest thing is when he left for inter and his time at real his heart still belonged to us but this time he will want to destroy us at every opportunity.

I don't think he was the same manager he was with us in 04-07 and I think he peaked around 2010 but he is still one of the best around and I think the club should of kept him until the end of the season and let him clear out the rotten apples then he could start again.

I think the club should of kept him until the end of the season and let him clear out the rotten apples then he could start again.

 

With the way we were playing, it was a real possibility that we might've got relegated. Let's not kid ourselves... As much as I hate to say it, Jose had to go.

 

I love him for what he did, but it was the right thing to do.

I am not kidding myself.

He had just signed a multi-million-pound contract. He was the most loved and successful manager in the history of chelsea.

It is now highly likely that he will join another premiership club which will make them more successful and as fans we will have to watch this and it will hurt.

The same thing happened to jose what happened to carlo, we have success then the board lets the team stagnate. It also happened in 2006 too.

The same thing happened to jose what happened to carlo, we have success then the board lets the team stagnate. It also happened in 2006 too.

 

Turning champions into relegation fodder isn't a team that was allowed to stagnate. That's a royal cock up beyond belief. Even with no marquee signings we should've been in the top 4-6 or thereabouts all through the season.

Turning champions into relegation fodder isn't a team that was allowed to stagnate. That's a royal cock up beyond belief. Even with no marquee signings we should've been in the top 4-6 or thereabouts all through the season.

But how was it jose that turned them into relegation fodder?

Jose made them champions. Surely it is up to the players to continue playing like champions.

What more could he have done? He played the same title winning team as last season.

His hands were tied. He was not backed in the summer which is evident with the mediocre players we signed.

He did not just suddenly turn up for training one day and say nah your champions now I can’t be assed to train you.

The players we’ve got now won’t play for hiddink, some did not play for di matteo and then only started to play again when the waiter came in at the business end of the season.

But how was it jose that turned them into relegation fodder?

 

Jose lost the dressing room.

 

He did not just suddenly turn up for training one day and say nah your champions now I can’t be assed to train you.

 

The short pre-season was a joke. A huge mistake.

Jose lost the dressing room.

The short pre-season was a joke. A huge mistake.

Yup. It was a mistake. Blame the board then.

The summer was a complete and utter farce, it was disgracefully managed by all those involved. The woefully short pre-season coupled with the very poor transfer window, it was destined to fail.

Our team walked the league last year, we were only under pressure at one point during that season when we were only ahead due to alphabetical order. The squad did not really understand true pressure and hadn't really experienced what we faced early in the season. We started so badly that the confidence was completely drained in every aspect of the club; an utter nightmare

Turning champions into relegation fodder isn't a team that was allowed to stagnate. That's a royal cock up beyond belief. Even with no marquee signings we should've been in the top 4-6 or thereabouts all through the season.

 

It wasn't even a lack of 'marquee signings' but an overall weakening of the playing squad. I think it's possibly naive to think you can weaken a squad in a league where everyone else is strengthening their's and maintain a position just because you won the league the season before.

But how was it jose that turned them into relegation fodder?

Jose made them champions. Surely it is up to the players to continue playing like champions.

 

 

That's fair enough. Give Jose the credit for making the players Champions but when it all went pear-shaped, it was all the players fault, not his.

 

Every other manager in football will get the blame went it all goes wrong but Jose is clearly the exception to the rule.

That's fair enough. Give Jose the credit for making the players Champions but when it all went pear-shaped, it was all the players fault, not his.

 

Every other manager in football will get the blame went it all goes wrong but Jose is clearly the exception to the rule.

I never said that.

With the way we were playing, it was a real possibility that we might've got relegated. Let's not kid ourselves... As much as I hate to say it, Jose had to go.

 

I love him for what he did, but it was the right thing to do.

He should have refused to play the ones who went against him. Did the board tell him he had to play them? That is what we need to know. He should have been allowed to kick them out even if it meant one average season.

 

I agree he will want to rub their noses in it now. Not the club but the players. Imagine him coming back with Man Utd next year!! He will target certain players. Not nice but true.

 

He is now gone, never to return so lets move forward.

That's fair enough. Give Jose the credit for making the players Champions but when it all went pear-shaped, it was all the players fault, not his.

Every other manager in football will get the blame went it all goes wrong but Jose is clearly the exception to the rule.

Lol, that's how it works.

I never said that.

 

Sorry, but that's how it came across to me.

 

Not having a pop at you or anyone really and I know there are some folk that will never be able to bring themselves to criticise Mourinho.

Like many I WAS a massive fan, but not anymore. Sorry, but if he was as good as he thought he was and as we all thought he was, and he was paid an absolutely massive salary because of that, then it shouldn't have ended like it did. He might not have been 100% to blame for everything, but he was central to everything and when you are as good a coach as Mourinho, there is no way it should have gone the way it did. 

Sorry, but that's how it came across to me.

Not having a pop at you or anyone really and I know there are some folk that will never be able to bring themselves to criticise Mourinho.

Like many I WAS a massive fan, but not anymore. Sorry, but if he was as good as he thought he was and as we all thought he was, and he was paid an absolutely massive salary because of that, then it shouldn't have ended like it did. He might not have been 100% to blame for everything, but he was central to everything and when you are as good a coach as Mourinho, there is no way it should have gone the way it did.

Sorry but I think most of us who support Jose recognize that he had equal blame to shoulder. The key term is equal. The anti-Jose camp hold him responsible for everything - organizing post season tours in Australia, serving fried chicken and chips to Costa and Hazard, killing a baby, etc.

It is like everything that he did for us has been forgotten while supporting players who cried like babies at the first sign of failure. We were the perennial underachievers before he came in 2004. He won us our first trophy in 50 years and made us a force in world football. That team was menacing. Even the Barca with a peak Ronaldinho feared us.

After Carlo's first year, we never looked like coming close to win the PL. Jose put us back on the map, literally. We became contenders with Torres leading our line. He got what he wanted last year and took us to the league trophy. Instead of backing him to take the next step and stand with the Madrids, Barcas of the world, our board sat on their collective a**es. Jose is a high intensity coach who always wants to win and this lethargy did not go well with him. Add the players coming to training sessions with hot dogs in their mouth and he completely lost it. Now, could have reacted better? Definitely. His blaming everything under the sun got old quickly. The doctor episode was embarrassing to say the least. But that is who he is. And he was pushed into a corner by the board and the players lost confidence in themselves and him. Collective clusterf*** but I hold the board (looking at you, high school girls coach) more responsible than anyone else.

In the end, you could see how much each loss hurt him. Couldn't say the same about the players.

Edited March 16, 201610 yr by JoseBlues

Another one that gets thrown around is this theory that Jose got rid of De Bruyne, Lukaku, Schurrle, Luiz, Cech and Juan Mata.

The facts are during the 2014-15 title winning season these players where not good enough for the first team. However rather than improve themselves at the club and under Jose’s tutelage they choose to leave for lesser and or developing sides in Europe where they would be given first team opportunity’s.

These players chose to leave and fair play to them they have been successful but if they had stayed for another season jose would have had the option to use these players and rotate the current squad a lot more rather than the team end up in a floundering position.

The only option he had was youth team players and we were in crisis and the pressure would have likely affected them.

He was not given money in the summer and only brought in small purchases like Falcao, a Reading player and an unknown French league player and a last minute panic buy from the club for Pedro.

When the club started making bids for players it was too late in the window and the bids for these players never came off which is neither surprising or the ambitions of a championship winning club.

He had the misfortune of experienced leaders like Cole, Lampard and Terry coming to an end of their careers and it is debateable that these players could may have been given new short term contracts by the club to lessen the negative effects of a transistion. They did not get new deals and no one of similar quality has come in to replace them.

He had to bring Didier Drogba in on the cheap to give the team some experience which any of those 3 mentioned above could have done. They would have all still have had the fitness to contribute on the field too.

Where did the money go from all these player sales, commercial deals and trophy prizes? Is Roman strapped nowadays too then?

Jose will continue to be one of the game’s elite managers that I am sure of.

I love how it was Jose who almost got us relegated ....well you know, never in the actual relegation zone and well before christmas.

But lets actually imagine we almost got relegated....how was it the manager and not the players who almost got us relegated?

As many of the "Jose out camp" have admitted, they stopped playing for him....and the club...and the fans.... and to even collect a pay cheque with the barest semblance of dignity

So if it was all just down to the payers not playing for the manager, in what mollycoddle world is it all the managers fault that the players are intentionally not giving it their all? Try that at your job, let me know if they fire you or the manager.

Who knows, maybe our amazing board has given players a clause in their contracts that state "In the event of not being happy with your manager, please feel free to collect your whole pay while putting in a fraction of the effort expected". I suspect if the players were contractors and football was like every other industry, many of them would of been done for breach of contract in terms of failure to perform. But this in Football in the modern world where apparently players can do no wrong and can hold the hopes and emotions of the fans hostage while collecting massive pay.....all because they dont fancy the manager (how many here actually like their own manager?)

Oh, and good thing we caved and gave the players what they wanted. Not only do they have the better track record, but clearly they are desperate to be here and do well....Oh wait.

My stance has never been Mourinho is faultless.

My stance is that either the manager or some of the players needed switching and in the interests of the club, it was better for certain players to go for a myriad of reasons.

Amongst them the obviousness that some of those players wont be here long regardless.

That the manager is a far better bet for success.

That, believe it or not, its probably going to be harder to replace Mourinho than Hazard (a problem inherent with going through managers at a rate of 13 in 12 years, many of them top level).

That the squad needed mixing up anyways.

That selling players can raise funds (important in Romans new era of posterity) while sacking Mourinho was going to cost millions and send a clear message of the lack of support managers can expect at Stamford Bridge.

Oh, and chiefly, that the club is never going to be well served in the long run by players fickle enough to do what they did pre-Christmas (or some are still doing) when they are willing to sell out the manager who only guided them to their only BPL title ever (save a very few), the club who paid them handsomely and the fans who sang their names when everyone else in the country despised them.

Quite frankly, Ive not seen a single thing that has changed my mind.....

I love how it was Jose who almost got us relegated ....well you know, never in the actual relegation zone and well before christmas.

But lets actually imagine we almost got relegated....how was it the manager and not the players who almost got us relegated?

As many of the "Jose out camp" have admitted, they stopped playing for him....and the club...and the fans.... and to even collect a pay cheque with the barest semblance of dignity

So if it was all just down to the payers not playing for the manager, in what mollycoddle world is it all the managers fault that the players are intentionally not giving it their all? Try that at your job, let me know if they fire you or the manager.

Who knows, maybe our amazing board has given players a clause in their contracts that state "In the event of not being happy with your manager, please feel free to collect your whole pay while putting in a fraction of the effort expected". I suspect if the players were contractors and football was like every other industry, many of them would of been done for breach of contract in terms of failure to perform. But this in Football in the modern world where apparently players can do no wrong and can hold the hopes and emotions of the fans hostage while collecting massive pay.....all because they dont fancy the manager (how many here actually like their own manager?)

Oh, and good thing we caved and gave the players what they wanted. Not only do they have the better track record, but clearly they are desperate to be here and do well....Oh wait.

My stance has never been Mourinho is faultless.

My stance is that either the manager or some of the players needed switching and in the interests of the club, it was better for certain players to go for a myriad of reasons.

Amongst them the obviousness that some of those players wont be here long regardless.

That the manager is a far better bet for success.

That, believe it or not, its probably going to be harder to replace Mourinho than Hazard (a problem inherent with going through managers at a rate of 13 in 12 years, many of them top level).

That the squad needed mixing up anyways.

That selling players can raise funds (important in Romans new era of posterity) while sacking Mourinho was going to cost millions and send a clear message of the lack of support managers can expect at Stamford Bridge.

Oh, and chiefly, that the club is never going to be well served in the long run by players fickle enough to do what they did pre-Christmas (or some are still doing) when they are willing to sell out the manager who only guided them to their only BPL title ever (save a very few), the club who paid them handsomely and the fans who sang their names when everyone else in the country despised them.

Quite frankly, Ive not seen a single thing that has changed my mind.....

Bravo, well said

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You all make very good points chaps. No real argument from me.

 

I know at times I must come across as anti-Mourinho and I guess NOW, perhaps that is the case. Loved the guy until this season and I suppose deep down, the way it all ended, I feel let down. I wouldn't go as far as some have suggested that he actually engineered the situation so he could take the vacant (soon to be) job at Man Utd. But although he pledged his love for us and he won the PL and Capital One cup last season, I just got the feeling things had changed. A sixth sense - might be wrong, but just like the old cliche of getting back with an old flame and hoping to rekindle what you had in the past, I got the feeling that Jose hoped it would be like that but the magic just wasn't there anymore - he wasn't The Happy One for long.

 

I respect the views of Chelsea supporters who are still fond of Mourinho but that just isn't where I am now. When favourite ex-players have returned in the past with other clubs, I always hope they do well, maybe even score a goal but ultimately Chelsea always win. IF and when Mourinho returns with whatever club, I will want us to win that game more than any other.

lets wait & see how he does at Man United IF he goes there

 

it will kind of settle this debate

 

soft spot here for a manager that won Chels 3 titles, 3 LCs and an FA cup - not too shabby even for a megalomaniachal narcissicist

Edited March 16, 201610 yr by General