The Mourinho Thread

[xPetrCechx 13,598]

Mourinho will give Loftus-Cheek an extended run of Premier League games in a move that should help to satisfy Abramovich. (Telegraph) #CFC

Abramovich is clearly dismayed but wants to give Mourinho the chance to turn around the bad form and disastrous results. #CFC (Telegraph)

The statement is more significant because it is the FIRST time in the Abramovich era that #CFC have publically backed a manager. (Telegraph)

Traditionally, Abramovich and Chelsea maintain a wall of silence over the future of their managers (Telegraph) #CFC

Particularly when things are going badly, Mourinho will view the statement as real and unique backing. (Telegraph) #CFC

It is expected Mourinho will have overseen a big improvement ahead of the next transfer window. (Telegraph) #CFC

And 'whoever' is in charge will have to largely work with the current squad. (Telegraph) #CFC

[cfcs most wanted 657]

I think we will end up second this year with this team

In every match

[xPetrCechx 13,598]

Roman Abramovich remains keen to see Chelsea start to bring some of their own talent through into the first team. (Telegraph) #CFC

Mourinho: "Who can cope the best with the pressure? The young player that is more ready is Ruben.” #CFC (Telegraph)

Mourinho: "Maybe a young player feels less pressure now than when the team are top of the League, fighting to be champions" #CFC

Mourinho: "So now it is time to play, not five or six kids, but Ruben is the one who is most ready." #CFC (Telegraph)

Mourinho (1/2): "If everything goes normally in these two weeks, yes Ruben a player to start the next game.."

Mourinho (2/2): "...and have a run of matches to try to get that stability as a first-team choice." #CFC (Telegraph)

[Parky 739]

Hopefully all underperforming players get benched especially Brana & Cesc while youth given more playing time and starts.

Ultimately it is Jose's stubbornness and ego that we are where we are. He also needs to stop making pathetic excuses and get on with the job and play some decent football.

Basically it is now all up to Jose if he remains in the job at the end of the season or not.

[kmk108 1,186]

Hopefully all underperforming players get benched especially Brana & Cesc while youth given more playing time and starts.

Ultimately it is Jose's stubbornness and ego that we are where we are. He also needs to stop making pathetic excuses and get on with the job and play some decent football. Basically it is now all up to Jose if he remains in the job at the end of the season or not.

There's hardly enough players to bench nearly the whole starting lineup.

[lionsden 4,689]

Someone actually said mourinho isn't at fault for the mess we are in. Wow. And subsequently a few posters agreed with him and ran away with the idiotic theory.

This forum is the gift that keeps on giving. Never cease to amaze me, the waffle some posters come up with.

[Parky 739]

Is it true we don't actually have an attacking coach at Chelsea? I find this extraordinary at a club the size of ours.

Will Jose give into his ego and get in an attacking coach to improve our football ?

[manpe 10,861]

Mourinho will give Loftus-Cheek an extended run of Premier League games in a move that should help to satisfy Abramovich. (Telegraph) #CFC

Abramovich is clearly dismayed but wants to give Mourinho the chance to turn around the bad form and disastrous results. #CFC (Telegraph)

The statement is more significant because it is the FIRST time in the Abramovich era that #CFC have publically backed a manager. (Telegraph)

Traditionally, Abramovich and Chelsea maintain a wall of silence over the future of their managers (Telegraph) #CFC

Particularly when things are going badly, Mourinho will view the statement as real and unique backing. (Telegraph) #CFC

It is expected Mourinho will have overseen a big improvement ahead of the next transfer window. (Telegraph) #CFC

And 'whoever' is in charge will have to largely work with the current squad. (Telegraph) #CFC

Roman Abramovich remains keen to see Chelsea start to bring some of their own talent through into the first team. (Telegraph) #CFC

Mourinho: "Who can cope the best with the pressure? The young player that is more ready is Ruben.” #CFC (Telegraph)

Mourinho: "Maybe a young player feels less pressure now than when the team are top of the League, fighting to be champions" #CFC

Mourinho: "So now it is time to play, not five or six kids, but Ruben is the one who is most ready." #CFC (Telegraph)

Mourinho (1/2): "If everything goes normally in these two weeks, yes Ruben a player to start the next game.."

Mourinho (2/2): "...and have a run of matches to try to get that stability as a first-team choice." #CFC (Telegraph)

Reading all those quotes I feel that Mourinho was given a proper bollocking in the post-loss meeting. The club are publicly backing him and now he is promising to give RLC a more prominent role. Maybe Roman shook him up and now Jose is ready to shake up the team. Either way, those are encouraging signs.

[kmk108 1,186]

Someone actually said mourinho isn't at fault for the mess we are in. Wow. And subsequently a few posters agreed with him and ran away with the idiotic theory.

This forum is the gift that keeps on giving. Never cease to amaze me, the waffle some posters come up with.

He is to blame, but the players are the ones that are playing horribly on the pitch. Mourinho can't run out and play himself. Once the lineup is set and the game starts, it's on the players to do their job, and they're not doing it.

[xPetrCechx 13,598]

Is it true we don't actually have an attacking coach at Chelsea? I find this extraordinary at a club the size of ours.

Will Jose give into his ego and get in an attacking coach to improve our football ?

I guess that... no...

[Fernando 6,743]

Reading all those quotes I feel that Mourinho was given a proper bollocking in the post-loss meeting. The club are publicly backing him and now he is promising to give RLC a more prominent role. Maybe Roman shook him up and now Jose is ready to shake up the team. Either way, those are encouraging signs.

To me it seems like he is being forced to use the youth.

I don't like that.

[xPetrCechx 13,598]

To me it seems like he is being forced to use the youth.

I don't like that.

If Mou can accept Orders from the board, it's a change... cos in the past he said that he will quit a job when someone will tell him what to do...

[Adnane 1,101]

He isn't forced to anything, he talked about RLC right after the game, and he suggested before Porto that if the regulars keep underperforming he would drop them for youth.

[Fernando 6,743]

He isn't forced to anything, he talked about RLC right after the game, and he suggested before Porto that if the regulars keep underperforming he would drop them for youth.

Right but when things are back to normal he goes back to the same.

Talk is cheap, prove it in the field.

[nullabletype 987]

That is not stability, this is not true.

Stability cannot be attributed to players or managers... They have a relatively short football life-span while clubs last for many generations. For instance, Mourinho coaches for a tad more than 10 years while the club exist for more than 100 years. Players and managers come and go and their profiles change just as regularly. How can such unstable elements bring stability to an entity that out-life them ? They do not and they cannot.

Stability is not human flesh, this is a concept. A concept that transcends players, managers and even presidents. Actually, stability is none other than a clearly identified identity. Barcelona is the perfect example. In ten years they had four managers : Pep, Tito, Tata, Enrique. The players have also changed : only Iniesta, Messi, Alves and Piqué are remaining from Pep's first season. Despite the changes in players, in managers and in presidents, during all these years Barça enjoyed success — aside of Tata's season (where he still was not that far away from winning the league). And they did so while playing with the same identity. Of course their game changed a little bit from year to year. Yet its identity remained the same, i.e. an offensive and good-looking game based upon a highly technical group of players where the collective is greater than the individuality and a desire to do their game no matter the opposition. This clearly identified identity is a major aspect of their constant succes in the last decade, because this identity is shared from the academy to the first team players, and from the supporters to the presidents. That is stability.

Another example : Arsenal and Wenger. During the last decade of his management at Arsenal, the club went from the Invincibles, to a group of teenagers trying to emulate Barcelona, to the actual group of mediocre mid-twenty players that pride itself in finishing fourth. That is not stability. That is a roller-coaster in terms of identity and in terms of results.

Let's go back to Chelsea. Where is the stability ? Where is the identity ? We went from an "ok" game, to a delightful game, to an ugly game, to.... The 16th place. It has also been — and still is — a roller-coaster. If there was no stability since Roman took over, that is not because he sacked managers every new moon. That is because we hired managers that had nothing to do with each other and because we bought players for the sake of it, without any policy. In other words, we were unstable because we did not have any identity. And funnily enough, since the Torres debacle we are trying to build an identity (we mainly bought young, dynamic and up-coming players that are at least decent with the ball)... but it is all going up into smoke as we are speaking.

Right now, the only stable element at the club — in regards to the sportive side — is Ivanovic's starting spot. Sacking Mourinho will only make one thing unstable : Ivanovic's starting spot.

And as expected the "keep mourinho in charge" crowd have ignored bluecolorsky and peace excellent post in the last two pages. I will love to see your response to those two posts in particular.

What? That piece that was about 10% relevant content wrapped in 90% fluff talking about the beyond flesh and blood transcendental nature of a football club? Yeah, we were going to ignore it. It might read well to the romantics but it wasn't nearly as deep as he thought it was.

We know clubs are institutions that will long outlive their managers and squads, that isn't news to anybody. It's not overly relevant to the present stability of the club though.

He talks about Barcelona being stable because of their identity and that certainly helps, sure. But of all the clubs he chooses to knock, it's Arsenal. Arsenal are a team who, if nothing else, are pure identity. People often meet statements like "the West Ham way" or "the Tottenham way" with a degree confusion, but "the Arsenal way"? Not so much. They might have changed over the years but it certainly wasn't an identity crisis that got them where they are now. As a side, Barcelona's core principles may have been in place prior to Pep, but it's hardly a dynasty. It's not even been a decade since Pep got the first team job.

United under Ferguson epitomized stability and even had a bit of identity in there for good measure, but I don't think it was that identity that kept Ferguson in a job for 23 odd years. It wasn't long disappearing if it was...

And it isn't the constant firing of Chelsea managers that's the problem? Well at very least I'm sure it doesn't help. If, as is suggested, it's simply just a matter of getting in coaches who "have something to do with each other" then Liverpool would still be winning titles and United post Ferguson would have kicked on without missing a beat.

Anyway, we all know the opposite sides aren't going to agree because there have been enough well thought out arguments on this site to win over anybody who was able to be won. All that matters is that the club, for the first time, have publicly backed the manager. A great manager, and that's all that matter to me.

[Fernando 6,743]

What? That piece that was about 10% relevant content wrapped in 90% fluff talking about the beyond flesh and blood transcendental nature of a football club? Yeah, we were going to ignore it. It might read well to the romantics but it wasn't nearly as deep as he thought it was.

We know clubs are institutions that will long outlive their managers and squads, that isn't news to anybody. It's not overly relevant to the present stability of the club though.

He talks about Barcelona being stable because of their identity and that certainly helps, sure. But of all the clubs he chooses to knock, it's Arsenal. Arsenal are a team who, if nothing else, are pure identity. People often meet statements like "the West Ham way" or "the Tottenham way" with a degree confusion, but "the Arsenal way"? Not so much. They might have changed over the years but it certainly wasn't an identity crisis that got them where they are now. As a side, Barcelona's core principles may have been in place prior to Pep, but it's hardly a dynasty. It's not even been a decade since Pep got the first team job.

United under Ferguson epitomized stability and even had a bit of identity in there for good measure, but I don't think it was that identity that kept Ferguson in a job for 23 odd years. It wasn't long disappearing if it was...

And it isn't the constant firing of Chelsea managers that's the problem? Well at very least I'm sure it doesn't help. If, as is suggested, it's simply just a matter of getting in coaches who "have something to do with each other" then Liverpool would still be winning titles and United post Ferguson would have kicked on without missing a beat.

Anyway, we all know the opposite sides aren't going to agree because there have been enough well thought out arguments on this site to win over anybody who was able to be won. All that matters is that the club, for the first time, have publicly backed the manager. A great manager, and that's all that matter to me.

Yeah I think this is the game changer because we all thought that they wanted an attacking side of the game and youth progress.

These two stuff that is very wrong to expect from Mourinho.

So with this they shown that they don't care much about this anymore. Which sadly for me I won't get what I wanted but I'm also happy that the club finally took a stand and showed their true intentions.

[Pizy 19,375]

Now that he's committed publicly to saying RLC will get a run of games, I wonder who it's in place of. I would suspect Matic but surely we won't line up with a two man midfield comprising of Fabregas and RLC? That could leave us even more exposed defensively.

I would suggest switching to a 4-3-3 (which I've begged for for ages) but then one of Willian or Pedro would have to be dropped continuously since we know Cesc never gets benched.

[Tomo 21,754]

Right but when things are back to normal he goes back to the same.

Talk is cheap, prove it in the field.

Well let's be honest Mourinho can be criticised for many things this season but lack of youth time is not one of them.

Kennedy and RLC have been granted more than respectable minutes all things considered, if Pellegrini did the same there would be post after post on the English football thread raving about his youth integration.

[manpe 10,861]

To me it seems like he is being forced to use the youth.

I don't like that.

Well, even if that's the case, then it's about time. Loftus-Cheek deserves it and if someone shoved that fact down Mourinho's throat, then I'm all for it.

[SinineUltra 1,170]

What? That piece that was about 10% relevant content wrapped in 90% fluff talking about the beyond flesh and blood transcendental nature of a football club? Yeah, we were going to ignore it. It might read well to the romantics but it wasn't nearly as deep as he thought it was.

We know clubs are institutions that will long outlive their managers and squads, that isn't news to anybody. It's not overly relevant to the present stability of the club though.

He talks about Barcelona being stable because of their identity and that certainly helps, sure. But of all the clubs he chooses to knock, it's Arsenal. Arsenal are a team who, if nothing else, are pure identity. People often meet statements like "the West Ham way" or "the Tottenham way" with a degree confusion, but "the Arsenal way"? Not so much. They might have changed over the years but it certainly wasn't an identity crisis that got them where they are now. As a side, Barcelona's core principles may have been in place prior to Pep, but it's hardly a dynasty. It's not even been a decade since Pep got the first team job.

United under Ferguson epitomized stability and even had a bit of identity in there for good measure, but I don't think it was that identity that kept Ferguson in a job for 23 odd years. It wasn't long disappearing if it was...

And it isn't the constant firing of Chelsea managers that's the problem? Well at very least I'm sure it doesn't help. If, as is suggested, it's simply just a matter of getting in coaches who "have something to do with each other" then Liverpool would still be winning titles and United post Ferguson would have kicked on without missing a beat.

Anyway, we all know the opposite sides aren't going to agree because there have been enough well thought out arguments on this site to win over anybody who was able to be won. All that matters is that the club, for the first time, have publicly backed the manager. A great manager, and that's all that matter to me.

I sincerely believe that one of the major factors we are in this situation right now boils down to the sheer number of managers we've had over the recent years. Every manager tries to bring in players he likes and sees suitable for his own formations and tactics. So in the end we are left with a team that does not work well together in a long run - neither fish nor fowl.