The Skipper

It's very naive to think that Emenalo and Jose were the final decision makers in player acquisitions this summer IMO. What if Roman just didn't want to spend money? People find it so easy to slate Emenalo, honestly.

So you attribute this utter disaster of a season to the fact that we failed to get in the right players in the summer? Now, I would accept that if we were underperforming to a certain level, let's say we were lingering in mid table at 10th right now, but that line has been crossed long ago. It's way bigger than that. To have a squad this talented be 1 point above the relegation zone is utterly unacceptable. And Jose to me is hugely responsible for that. Okay, let's say... He couldn't motivate this set of players anymore. Fine. But this drop off is completely unprecedented. Yes, we stood still, and Jose then almost reversed us into oblivion. As I said before, with the amount of talent we have in the squad, this is not acceptable from any manager. What I love about the club? It's a family thing for myself. There's plenty of Chelsea fans in my family and we all have strong emotions towards the club in that sense. It's very simplistic to say it's as simple as the badge, the Bridge or fellow fans. It's a deeply rooted connection. Jose's confidence/arrogance fits the club well when we're performing but he's lost that sort of aura about him. He isn't the same person as he was a decade ago. He sounds a lot different, bitter and deluded a lot of the times, and I'm certain this club isn't about that. Not to me anyway. Jose Mk II isn't the same as the Jose that stepped in a decade ago. Not at all. I don't want us to play like Barcelona. I want us to develop our own identity and we were on our way of doing so. If a manager isn't producing the goods then yes, he has to go. I'm sorry to keep harping about this but... We need to get past the stage where we let a manager dictate the philosophy and ethos of this club. It needs to be the other way around. It seems like we'll just go around and around in circles with this, so respectfully, I'll agree to disagree with you. I admire your loyalty to Jose, it's great to see - but for me my first loyalty will always be the well being and progression of the club and Jose, the legend that he is, is an unfortunate casualty of that.

OTK,First off. Thanks for a very eloquent response, very much appreciated. Now, I must respectfully say that I disagree with various points you've made. The first point I'll make is that you can't say that the squad weakened so much that we should be hovering a point above relegation at this stage of the season; no matter what you say that isn't good enough. As for integrating the youth when we're on the front foot? That's not how Mourinho works, he never has. Last season, when we clearly were on the front foot, Mourinho still was very reluctant to field youngsters. CL group stage against Sporting when RLC got a few minutes is a great example of this - we were utterly brilliant around that time but we still didn't see enough youngsters. I don't buy that we would've been playing the youth if we were doing well this season. And that's all well and good. He's deserved it. He's been a very influential person in our club. I'll always hold him in the highest regard but that doesn't mean he's always going to be the right person to take us forward. It's not about stylish football, it's about the plan we had as a club. The right path I've been alluding to is the very one Jose harped about when he came back - the ability to win in style, to nurture our young talents that we've smartly bought, to use our excellent academy and get in a few chaps made by Chelsea. We saw it last season, and we were progressing well in that aspect but we fully stalled, and started regressing, and under Jose we were not showing that we were going to get back to that level. The styles you talk about from other big European clubs - we were getting there. We're so far from that now.

Favre. As interim.

An interesting question to you here:Do you genuinely believe that Jose is more or less guilt free and that our bad showings doesn't have much to do with his tactics and how he sets up and selects the team? Do you actually believe the players are performing bad because they want Mourinho sacked? That's just too simplistic a view to take. Many of us won't forget that we're here to support the club we love on Saturday either. I'm very sure of it. Yes, we love Mourinho and what he's done for the club but we love our club more, and we love watching us play regardless of what's going on. That's the attitude and atmosphere I hope to see at the Bridge on Saturday.

I was, and I went to plenty of games at the Bridge during that time as well. I was one of Benitez's biggest critics. It certainly does not feel like that at all to me. I agree that Jose is a very important person at Chelsea and definitely helped starting the CFC revolution last decade but that doesn't automatically mean he's above everything this club is about. My problem isn't even that we're a point above the relegation zone. There's far more to it than that. It's the fact that he's completely gone back on what he's promised to establish here - not just about winning, but winning in style (Jose's own words in 2013 shortly after he arrived), about developing the massive potential we had as a team when he arrived, about giving our most talented crop of youth a chance to develop. We're doing none of that so far - I genuinely wouldn't mind Jose staying if he stuck to these promises. When Jose came back I was absolutely ecstatic but I love my club more, and I enjoy the fact that we're one of the leading clubs in the country and in Europe. We weren't heading in the right direction at all anymore and Jose has even lost what would've given him more time here - the ability to churn out wins. You can't say it's an irrational sacking. There is no way a squad this talented should be in the position we are now. We're not even a mid table team at the moment. I also don't see it as a worrying time either. I think if the board get it right, it'll give us a chance to get back onto the right path. Exciting times ahead. Hopefully we start realising our potential in the long term now.

Shh.

It remains to be seen IMO whether some of these players mentioned (i.e. Cesc and Diego) are actually done here. People mentioning that Hazard should be replaced are just being ludicrous and emotional. Pedro has just arrived... Solutions exist within our squad to get the best out of some of these players that are underperforming - we don't need a massive 7/8 player overhaul at all. Our squad is decent - a couple of great additions will turn it into a great one.

He oozes blue, he's proper Chels, but that doesn't mean he's the best man for the job. By that reasoning Kenny Dalglish should still be Liverpool manager even though what he's done at the club had set them back for years and is still kind of haunting them right now. It doesn't work like that. And I'm very certain SB won't be anywhere near as toxic as you're trying to make it out to be. There's time between now and the game, things will cool off. People are there to support Chelsea FC, not Jose Mourinho. We're more than a manager. You can't tell me you were happy with the identity the club has generated under Mourinho?

Prepare for mid table football at the best for a few years then. We can't replace the likes of Hazard, Cesc and Diego in January with our youth players and expect to remain a very top team, not like this.

And how do you know they don't care about the club?

So you really think the players revolted against Mourinho essentially? What evidence do you have to prove this? This isn't the same as let's say what AVB experienced here. The players seemed very much behind Mourinho IMO.

Who should we replace them with...?

How does sacking Jose make it more likely for us to be relegated? I don't get this narrative either.

Wow. So he's actually gone. Such a shame things didn't work out. Let me say one thing though - the people that are playing the player power narrative couldn't be more wrong in my opinion. This isn't the same. The players are not revolting against Mourinho - they've come out at numerous times supporting the manager. They care. They are trying out there. It just wasn't working anymore. The player power narrative is a very poor one I think. It was far bigger than that. Players aren't underperforming because they wanted Mourinho out. Whatever was working for our players and Mourinho just isn't anymore. Which brings me onto my next point. Having a manager for a long time does not guarantee long term stability at the top level. As I said before, it's about the ethos and philosophy that the club defines. We need that defined now more than ever. This is when we bring in players AND managers that fit our defined philosophy and ethos. Jose is an absolute legend for what he's done for us and for world football in general but it just wasn't meant to be. Our results this season just were not acceptable and he including the players and the board are responsible for that. He didn't have it in him to turn it around however. How we progress from here and the moves we make from now on will be very important for the club's long term future.

I used to be in the 'keep Mourinho till the end of the season at least' crowd but honestly what's the point if he does end up going at the end of the season anyway? Why not get in a manager now (if it's not Pep who's available at the end of the season) and let him have this time to evaluate the squad, the youngsters coming through and start implementing his ideas and stuff early?

Would be a very interesting option tbh. I really like how Koeman sets his team up.

JM in 2013. How things have changed. We believed in him building something special here, with an identity, with a certain style of play. It was more than Mourinho. It was what we as a club set to do. It's certainly not that anymore though. It seems like we're Jose Mourinho FC more than Chelsea FC right now. The club is being built in his image - rather than what we wanted before. People aren't just unhappy that we aren't playing in a certain way for no reason. Jose alluded to this himself. We wanted to be more than a team that wins. We wanted to win in style. We wanted to develop our young superstars into bonafide superstars. We wanted to bring through academy players. We do not do this anymore, at all.

Exactly this. Very well put Tomo. Southampton are a great example. They have much more of an identity than we do.

It's tough but we have the resources to at least start something special. You know, I would agree with the SAF model being followed a year ago but it doesn't seem like that anymore. Philosophy "y" still hasn't been established yet. I reiterate that there's just no identity at the moment in our team. It looked like we were developing one around this time last year but now? We clearly aren't sticking to that. We aren't bringing through our young talents as much as we should. We aren't playing entertaining football anymore. We aren't implementing the ideologies that Mourinho promised to bring in when he signed. We seem to have lost the plot completely.

I disagree that we've had a bad transfer policy even before Mourinho, but that's another discussion. It transcends above Emenalo. It's about the ethos and philosophy of the club. The people higher up need to decide what way we're going instead of sitting on the bench. Are we going to focus on attacking football? Or will we play reactive, Mourinho-like football, and just buy players that fit the system? Is that what we're going to stick by as a club? I'd rather us have a path that we've decided on and stick with that. We need to decide what we want as a club. Are we a team that'll use our talented academy? Or are we just using that as a profit centre? It's all very blurred right now, we have no direction as a club. It's weird because when Mourinho arrived he kept saying how this and that was the new ethos of the club - how we wanted to develop young players and play with a high press, slick attacking football. We're seeing NONE of that though. Nothing at all. The club just has no identity.

We need to get past the stage of letting a manager dictate the future and philosophy of the club. That needs to be set at a higher level.

He's actually fully lost the dressing room it seems like.

He's throwing most of the players under the bus now. This isn't working. We can't sell 20+ players, so he has to go.

Yeah, I think that's it for me. Finally, fully fledged member of Mourinho out now. You know what, if we were hovering around 10th/9th, I'd still give a vote of confidence but this is unprecedented and very atrocious. Just not good enough. We have a lot of good players under performing. It points to one man.