Forget Real Madrid – they chop and change managers far too regularly anyway. So this has to be Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s biggest challenge to date.
Because, usually he knows how to solve dips in form. But he seems at a loss to completely understand what has gone wrong with a squad that he seemed totally comfortable with going into September.
At the end of August he told the media:
“I have a good squad. I’m happy with the squad I have. If I get another player until the end of the market, good. If I don’t get, we go with what we have.”
Now, just a couple of months into the campaign, Chelsea have already lost 5 games and there are murmurs of discontent from the same players who thrived on his last period at the club.
The Guardian writes:
Concern is growing within the Chelsea dressing room at the perceived scapegoating of certain players by José Mourinho after the champions’ desperately poor start to the season. The decision not to take Oscar and Loïc Rémy to Porto in midweek and the continued absence of John Terry from the starting lineup are understood to have surprised senior squad members.
Top Man
Now let us be clear that when a media outlet of this reputation writes such an article it is usually because they have had direct contact with a person on the inside.
If The Guardian says that certain Chelsea players are disillusioned it’s never pure speculation.
You would imagine that Jose’s job is safe. And you would imagine that he will turn things around.
But, on the flip side, this is a highly combustible manager with a huge ego. We saw the dramatic way in which he left Chelsea before and if he feels that he is being undermined by stalwarts like John Terry then he may quickly decide that he has had enough.
Jose needs to put his galvanising hat on now and take off the confrontational one that he seems have been wearing for much of the season.
We feel that anything but a victory against Southampton this weekend and the situation will get even more fragile.
Chelsea fans: still behind Jose?
