A seething Jose Mourinho looks on as Chelsea get drubbed in their own backyard by Southampton
When Graziano Pelle fired home Southampton’s third, Jose Mourinho was seen with a smirk. He was laughing at his own team’s current incapability of playing football. When Chelsea do score, he sits there, on the bench, stone-faced. His assistants shout and scream for joy as they should, but he just sits there, almost unhappy at his team scoring!
And to prove a point (only God and Jose know what that point was), he took off Nemanja Matic, 25 minutes after the poor chap went on to the pitch as a substitute. The commentators confirmed that he was not, in any way, the worst player on the field wearing a Chelsea shirt. Call it pressure from the board or the Oligarchy, Eden Hazard remained on the pitch, which is a decision that cannot be explained by us mortals. Only ‘Special Ones’ can take these extraordinary decisions.
Graziano Pelle celebrates after scoring the Saint’s third goal of the night in the 72nd minute of the match
Asmir Begovic, Willian and Pedro must be thinking why they are giving their all when the manager isn’t even taking any interest in their hard work. Why was Branislav Ivanovic STILL in the starting lineup with Kurt Zouma on the bench? That’s like selecting your worst photograph as your Display Picture on Facebook!
Remember this is a team that won the league easily last season. At the start of this campaign they were hot favourites with most bookmakers and punters to win it again. Millions of pounds were bet on them to finish champions, and yet they find themselves firmly in the bottom half. Even the club’s new betting partner, Genting Bet, now has them as huge outsiders, because even at this stage of the season there is simply too much ground for them to make up on the leaders.
Watching Mourinho for the past few weeks has made us believe that he does not know what he is talking about. All that changed however with the post Southampton interview that was aired on live television for the entire world to see as millions of fans now understood exactly what was going on within the Chelsea management. Before we dissect that interview, let us read some of the more important statements that Jose made in it.
Mourinho said,“…. clearly the referees are afraid to give decisions for Chelsea”.
More importantly though, he went on to say, “I want to make it clear. One, I don’t run away. Two, if the club wants TO SACK ME, they have to sack me because I’m not running away from my responsibility and my team. ….because if the club sacks me, they sack the best manager that this club has.”
Radamel Falcao went down in the box after some contact with the Saints ‘keeper but a penalty was not awarded by referee Robert Madley
The most obvious conclusions that we can draw from this interview are that Jose is facing immense pressure from the Chelsea board. He is under massive pressure and I feel that a sacking ultimatum has been given. Similarly, Jose looked wrecked, nervous and almost pleaded with the media to show him, his players, and Chelsea in a better light. He would not have acted in that manner had he not been under pressure.
He also blamed his team’s tough times on refereeing decisions and a supposed FA bias against Chelsea because of course, the “Special One” can never blame himself. He said in the interview too that he has a “big ego” which was showcased when Jose subtly issued the board a warning that they will lose their best manager ever if they were to sack him. Quite frankly though, nobody can argue with that fact.
Yes, he is under pressure and is overseeing bad results at the moment, but let’s not forget that whatever reputation Chelsea FC have built up over the years, is mostly because of him. What we can guarantee though in these uncertain times is that an intriguing period lies ahead of us as the drama unfolds at Stamford Bridge after the international break. So what’s the betting Chelsea get rid of him again? Will Jose normalise in time and save his and Chelsea FC’s blushes or is this the beginning of the end of his second stint at the Bridge?
