The Chels

Why not? They'll want to get rid of him probably even if he wins the quadruple!

Yep, it does seem increasingly inevitable. I understand that he'll want to please his (soon-to-be) new fanbase and that he may resent his treatment from some of the Chelsea players/board, but I do hope while he's there he shows some respect to the Chelsea fans (matchgoing ones, especially) who gave him an unprecedented amount of support. 'The biggest club in England', 'where I always wanted to be', 'the best stadium and atmosphere...' bla bla bla would be pretty insensitive albeit unsurprising.

The same team that struggled against Benitez's Liverpool? We would definitely have been in with a better shout but to suggest we'd have torn that Atletico side apart is a huge disservice.

That username

The guy's now been booed by Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea fans Ah well he can always say he had the 'Fabregas is Magic' chant.

Imagine that. Klopp at Liverpool as well. That would make for one hell of a league.

When Nevin says 'I thought it came out it was Cesc Fabregas', I wonder if is he talking about the Secret Footballer's 'revelations' or more properly sourced information.

Their CL campaign in that season was also nothing short of remarkable and but for a late, late goal, would IMO have gone down as an achievement just as impressive (if not more) as Jose's Inter triumph in 2010. Knocking out Barcelona, Mourinho's Chelsea (our big game record was amazing that season) and Real Madrid with that budget in the same year as beating those two giants to La Liga... Damn, so close.

Haha it is pretty crazy, isn't it? Mourinho has his faults but boy does he know how to create a hugely faithful cult of fans wherever he goes. I've certainly not been immune to his spell either and I wish him all the best, but definitely not at the expense of Chelsea. Following his sacking here, Marca and AS both did a poll asking whether the fans would want Mourinho to return to Madrid and in both polls the vote was approximately split at 50%. Even after all the drama there, many desperately want him back: 'Mourinhistas'. An incredibly divisive character, to say the least. I see a lot of United (among other clubs') fans claiming not to want him, which is completely reasonable, but Mourinho hasn't created that emotional connection with their fanbase (yet). Football is an emotional game with fickle fans and it wouldn't be surprising to see many against Mourinho soon changing their minds were he to join their club, once again establishing the 'one of us' mentality and once again polarising opinion.

The real cono...cido.

I think Andy Burton mentioned this too (on Sky Sports News yesterday) but he didn't give names.

Where's the story of Oscar leading a revolt come from?

@Jason Is there a blacklist of sites/sources that really should never be quoted on here due to a complete lack of reliability and history of BS? If so, @UberCheIseafc should definitely be on there.

Chelsea mole --> Porto --> Casillas --> Marca.

From the Australian NT: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/677644616531910656

About the 'I'd rather lose for Mourinho than win for him' quote that surfaced earlier in the season, Garry Richardson (who revealed the quote) elaborated on BBC 5 Live yesterday. According to him it was said in the heat of the moment as a response to 'Come on, you can win this game for us.' He goes on to say that a couple of days afterwards, Mourinho said there were a 'couple of bad apples causing me lots of problems and it's a very difficult situation to handle.' Assuming the quote is genuine and that it's from someone who can 'win the game for us' then that would surely narrow it down to a couple. I would guess Costa and given the whole bib incident, it wouldn't be surprising if he was one of the 'bad apples' Mourinho was referring to. (You can listen to Garry at around minute 50 on the 'Chelsea sack Mourinho' segment if you navigate through the 'live coverage' bit on http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/34413864)

I'd imagine a lot of them will have done it privately.

Ultimately I think those who were suggesting Jose be sacked while top 4 was still salvageable turned out to be right. That said, I am kind of glad he was given those extra weeks or months for what they're worth. There would have been a feeling of 'what if' and niggling doubts that a lot of the issues were fitness-related and would have gradually improved. But in keeping him till mid-December, I think Jose was given enough time to change things in the sense that if he was going to turn things around, if he was capable of doing so, then he would already have done so by now. It's clear that any more time (even including the January transfer window) would only have seen our slide continue.

The whole 'lack of balls, lack of commitment, lack of desire' stuff is really overstated in my opinion. It's no surprise to see Mourinho put it down to this rather than consider the tactical side of things and what he could do differently. It's clear that his managerial success has huge thanks to his man-management and motivational skills, and in particular getting good players to play out of their skin for him. When that's gone though and when you can't rely on the players' individual abilities, when you require a system that makes the collective greater than the sum of the (underperforming) individual parts, what is Mourinho offering? Some tactical experimentation from the start of games (not including changing around the starting 11 slightly) would be nice. There's nothing to lose now.

The amount of time we wasted passing the ball around in our own half (to and fro Courtois) when we were chasing the game... Jeez, squeeze the game into their half ffs.

Hopefully not PSG again. Besides the difficulty that would be incredibly boring.

How did Marca get the line-up for a Chelsea game so early? Casillas at it again

Yep, a good manager but good enough for Chelsea? I don't think so. I suppose it depends on our expectations: are we content with a title and league cup every 2-3 years or do we want to aim to be among the European elite again? In case of the latter, then as we are pretty damn far from having the best squad, we'd have to have one of the best managers to make the collective truly greater than the sum of the individual parts (something we were expecting from Mourinho). Now that Klopp is at Liverpool and it looks like Guardiola will probably end up at City, I think Simeone is the one who best fits the bill but would he leave Atleti? Sampaoli would be an interesting choice as well but there really aren't many candidates who the fans could have genuine faith in, probably one of the biggest reasons the board and many fans are still hoping for what looks like an increasingly unlikely Mourinho revival. It really is a collapse of the highest order.

We're now just 2 points above the relegation zone...