In any other business, suffering Mourinho would get a sabbatical to save him
The problem for Chelsea is that the best solution to the current crisis is unavailable to them. Jose Mourinho needs a sabbatical. At least he needs a couple of months off. And if Chelsea was another business, he could get that. But it isn’t, and he can’t — so instead they might end up losing the best manager they have ever had. Crazy, isn’t it?
Mourinho, at his most potent, has been one of the finest coaches in football for close to two decades now. What has happened at Chelsea in recent weeks is entirely unrepresentative of his career. Yes, there has always been confrontation, and often controversy, but usually against a backdrop of success.
Mourinho fell out with the Football Association, various referees, Arsene Wenger and half of Sky last season, but Chelsea still won the Premier League and Capital One Cup.
even the bad times are good under Mourinho. he described his final season at Real Madrid as the worst of his career, but still won the Spanish Super Cup, came second in La Liga, reached the semi-final of the Champions League and the final of the Copa del Rey.
This campaign is different. To be placed 15th on the cusp of November is foreign territory. To see loyalists in his playing staff as good as betray him week after week is both mystifying and enraging. he looks lost. Those who passed him on the way back to their seats in the West ham directors’ box on Saturday described a glowering, dark presence almost radiating rage and injustice.
We hear a lot about the aura of sport’s great motivators, yet right now, Mourinho’s is comprised of little more than tension, paranoia and impotent fury. even the insult that got him sent off by referee Jon Moss — ‘Wenger was right, you are f****** soft’ — tells of a man wasting his energy on grudges.
Mourinho doesn’t look right, either. Watch his interviews with the sound down. Shut out the words and study the man. he appears older, drawn, edgy, no longer in control of his emotions. Fabio Capello says Mourinho’s way is exhausting for his players. It burns them out, and quickly. Maybe it has burnt him out at last, too.
he needs to get away from all that angst for a while, he needs a break. But it cannot happen in football. We all know the break football managers get. It comes accompanied by a large cheque and a P45. Nobody removes a manager temporarily from the firing line — but that is exactly what would happen to Mourinho in another industry now.
He is not just any employee. he is one who can command a salary of roughly £7million a year, and be considered worth every penny. So think of businesses in which the top performers are of that value to the company: banking, marketing, the financial sector, law.
Let’s say a senior partner in a legal firm, an expert strategist, a brilliant mind, an employee who delivered year on year and whose gift could be measured in commissions worth millions, went through an erratic spell lasting several months. Would he be sacked? It is extremely unlikely.
elite performers in elite industries are not casually jettisoned. A sabbatical might be proposed; or simply a long break with the family. Spend a few months on a Caribbean beach, regroup, recharge, come back refreshed. Good businesses don’t burn bridges with their best talent; and that includes other departments at football clubs.
Would Abramovich ( below) be prepared to lose Marina Granovskaia, his senior advisor of 18 years’ standing, brought over from Sibneft, if she endured a drop in performance, for whatever reason? Why is loss of form, or direction, only considered irreversible in the field of coaching?
Chelsea will stand by Mourinho, for now, yet if circumstances do not soon improve, they will lose him for ever. Abramovich did the same with Carlo Ancelotti, who has been discussed as Mourinho’s replacement, but is believed to be reluctant to work for the club again after the way he was treated the first time.
Ancelotti did the Double, failed to repeat that level of success in his second season, and was dismissed. It was an incredible way to behave towards an employee with his track record. Yet Mourinho could be lost as carelessly — and for the second time in his career at Stamford Bridge. his first dismissal came 16 months after winning backto-back titles at the club.
Chelsea have a lot of managers, but it is not so much the high turnover as the way success is so indifferently regarded that will look curious to those outside the game. Roberto Di Matteo didn’t even make it to Christmas the year he won the Champions League. Luiz Felipe Scolari, a World Cup winner, wasn’t given a full season. how can Chelsea risk losing Mourinho twice?
For all Abramovich’s money and investment, Chelsea have won four Premier League titles — and three of them have come under Mourinho’s stewardship. history suggests, therefore, that this slump is temporary and what Mourinho most needs right now is support and executive guidance.
If he pulls through, there is every likelihood he will succeed again. Yet he may not make it past the weekend, if Chelsea are unable to beat Liverpool. It wouldn’t happen to a senior trader, a gifted chief executive or outstanding head of marketing. Only football managers lead this do- or- die existence.
So is there a way around the crisis for Chelsea? Probably not. If Mourinho needs a brief time away to refocus, who would take that firefighter’s role? Chelsea have had interim managers, but not interim seat-warmers. No coach of substance would accept such a position and any combination from within — a caretaker alliance of director of football Michael emenalo and club captain John Terry, for instance — would lack authority with Mourinho in the wings, poised to return. It leaves Chelsea with two equally unappealing options. Stick with Mourinho, when it is plain the present position is taking a harmful toll on the man and the club; or replace him, knowing that this time Chelsea will be closing the door permanently on the best manager in their history. Serious men, in a serious world, might be prescribed a few sunsets and the odd margarita until they can think straight again; in silly old football, it’s win or farewell.