Sing When You’re Cheated, Sing When You’re Cheated!!
By: Andy | September 23rd, 2007
What can you say? Jose loses his job on Wednesday, Chelsea has to play the Champions on Sunday, Chelsea appoint a new manager on Thursday, Chelsea still have to go to Old Trafford to play the Champions on Sunday.
OK you take it on the chin, you look at all the previous stats, records and acheivements that Chelsea has gained at Old Trafford in the Premiership years and hope, because a new man is in charge, the Gods and luck are on your side!!
The team who hasn’t scored a league goal in two league matches prior to today to be honest didn’t look any different without the influential names of Lampard and Drogba in the side and if I am to be honest a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford this afternoon would have suited me down to the ground.
There was no Jose in charge but a bloke called Avram Grant, brought in by Rich Boy in the Summer, as Director of Football and has become the manager and coach of Chelsea Football Club.
Rich boy’s yes boy if we are honest, if you believe what you have read in today’s papers, that Rich Boy wants control of team affairs and if true what a job Rich Boy did… I could have done better than Rich Boy for a start leave your toy boy alone.
What Rich Boy can do with his millions and billions or notes is down to him, but I hope that Rich Boy has learned that he can’t buy EVERYTHING!!! Everything includes the officials, the men in black, the men in charge of today’s game at Old Trafford.
A few weeks ago Paella man at Scumpool got a phone call from Keith Hackett, who is the boss of Premiership referees, to apologise for Rob Styles penalty award when Malouda was accused of diving at Scumpool. Last weekend Jose demanded that Hackett should ring him to apologise for the goal against Blackburn, which was ‘disallowed.’ The phone call never came.
Tomorrow Avram Grant should get a call from Hackett regarding the worse referee in the Premiership, Mike Dean and I thought Graham Poll was shit!!!!
Utd’s first goal came into 2mins 30secs into first half injury-time when injury-time was called for 2 mins, the first half ended after 3mins 30 secs of injury time. WTF
As for Utd’s second goal two minutes from full-time well what can you say. Chelsea has been criticised for having ‘divers’ namely Drobga and Robben, but OMG the OSCAR for the BEST PLATOON (SHOT IN ACTION DIVE) must got to Louis Saha. Up Saha got and struck the penalty home and sealed Utd’s win.
I WAS THERE WHEN WE WERE SHIT!!
KTBFFH
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To start at the beginning, i have followed the “progress” of Chelsea from their status pre-Mourinho as a club that competes for honors but never quite had the required push to beat the top clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal. Then came first the billions of the Russian Abrahomich followed by the “modest” Mourinho.
Mourinho had done the near impossible. Rising from relative obscurity he had won two major competitions in Europe; the most important being the Champions League with Porto. He became a beautiful bride and Chelsea won his signature.
Without doubt Mourinho had done well for himslef and Chelsea in three years. Notably he gave the Chelsea faithfuls their first taste of Barclays Premiership after 5o years of waiting. This was where the story really began to show. There are a few factors that have helped to effect a change of guards at Stamford Bridge.
In the first place, Mourinho will find it eternally difficult to prove that he could have won the Barclays League without the billions of Abrahamovich.
Secondly i think Chelsea got themselves a world class coach without looking at the soft issues with the man Jose. Jose had coached a small club where he had done so well. Coming to a bigger club required a change in attitude. Mourinho had classed himslef special and needed his ego to be so caressed. But unfortunately the club is run; not by a board, but by a young billionaire who himself needed his ego to be massaged. Conflict was inevitable.
Thirdly, Mourinho was beginning to put in place a system that revolved around him and not the club. Mourinho was more important; in the eyes of the players and even the supporters , than Chelsea. The players seem to play for him and not the Blue they wore. That is bad. Compared to clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal, they needed to put that issue to bed very quickly.
Further, how the many faithfuls of Chelsea could ever think that Abrahomich would put in so much of “his” personal finance into the club and walk away, allowing others to run the club or him beats me. None of us, would in Roman’s shoes do any better. We will always want to “poke” our noses from time to time. A manager needs to understand that.
Finally, Mourinho was beginning to feel the pressure. This was the first season he would be put on a shoe-string budget and he panicked. Throughout last season Mourinho found it had to be magnanimous in defeat and would always attribute his losses to either:
Chelsea did not play well
Referees bias or
Injuries to key players.That same song played itself out when they failed to win the Charity Shield.
The lesson for all.
Clubs who are today enjoying foreign investments must realise that sooner or later these billionaires will begin to demand results commensurate with their investment.
What i am waiting for is the reaction of the players. We will know now if they joined Chelsea to be part of a tradition or for the monery and/or Jose. My gut feeling is that Jose’s exit will signal an exodus from Chelsea. Not because the new man would demand it but because over the past few seasons the club have acquired a set of players who are mercenaries and staunch supporters of the “Special One”. That will be bad for Chelsea.
In the long run, Chelsea will be better for losing Jose. The English League will also be better for it. Clubs need passion and modesty; coaches who can lose well and celebrate success with magnanimity; players who are passionate about the clubs they play for and not those who play for the highest pay check.
Time will tell…
Posted from
United States
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Harold,
I appreciate your views. I’m Adam, resident CL blogger and Chelsea faithful in past few years.Jose was beautiful bride and Roman won the hand in 2004. But we need to go back little bit. Ranieri was also given heavy budget in 2003 and he bought some promising players not to mention playrs like Duff, Cech, Robben who were instrumental in Chelsea’s success. But what Ranieri lacked was confidence and winning mentality. I still think we were closest to CL in 2004 when Jose became special one. But Ranieri’s limited tactical ability costed trophy. Moreover he admittedly said that it was his tinkering that led us to defeat. We came second but did you look at the results. Loosing to teams like Bolton(who were extremely bad at that time) at home was frustrating. Even we didnt do anything good at FA cup and CC. I remember at that time, all the away fans used to chant “you cant buy the success”.
With Bates (who was disliked by fans) departing Jose also arrived in same year. Young billionaire, young, maverick and handsome manager brought euphoria in the club. And suddenly there was feeling amongst every one that we can win it. It was Jose’s charm and x-factor that added extra spice to journey to victory. Yes Jose had become Hero from Zero in less that 3-4 years when Wenger, Lippi and Fergie had to spend their careers. But something was different with this man. May it be his tactical astuteness on the field or off the field charisma everyone simply got attracted towards him. His substitutions were always spot on. His analysis of opponents was nothing less than perfect. Very few times he faltered and that is understandable. He might not have played beautiful footy always but yet amazingly he managed to win in any circumstances. And his records speak for himself. Fergie (the most successful manager in PL) could only beat him once in 9-10 meetings. Wenger never beat him in any competition. Rafa only once managed to beat him in league. And his CL wins were controversial or lotteries. He remains UNBEATEN in Stamford Bridge in league and only beaten twice in other competitions. He had monopoly over squad that almost prevented any fights. And best example would be his players giving everything for him. Moreover most importantly he imbued winning mentality which Ranieri miserably failed. You should have seen last season how this winning mentality prevailed over beautiful football, injuries, pressure etc.
Abramovich hardly poked his nose in 2004-2005 and look at the results. We took the english football for ride. Mourinho once said “if he helped me in football we will be at bottom of table and if I helped him in business then we will be bankrupt”. This was JM’s approach. How many times did you see Chelsea player getting stick from press (recently Sheva got lot of it but he was extremely poor by his standards). It was JM who diverted all the attention of press from players to his witty, arrogant and sometimes unnecessary comments. Players always remained protected under his shield.
Jose never wanted squad of superstars. He always maintained that he wanted versatile and hardworking players who would give their 100%. Hence this years little budget hardly affected him. Even in 2004 when he was given a treasure of money he preferred players like Drogba, Ferreira, Carvalho who were not big stars at that time. Even though PK might refuse 100 times but Sheva was not his signing. Only JM bought players at exorbitant rates. The guys he wanted desperately were Drogba, Essien, Carvalho, Ferreira, A.Cole have been brilliant over the years.
Jose consistently provided success. But the owner had different plans. And as far as player exodus is concerned. Let me remind you that they are all professionals. They shared special bond with special one. And if this Grant continues who becomes only Yes man to owner then I really fear.
And as far as your last lines goes. Both Chelsea and England lost something in terms of Jose. He was unprecedented kind of Stamford Bridge which “ruled” UK for past 3 years. If you see when Jose was there, their was loyalty,passion and more important winners attitude was there. And how can you expect modesty from winner. Go to Liverpool, you will be bombarded by their 18 league comments every moment even though its 18 years last time they won. Go to man utd and face arrogance all over Old Trafford. Its not traditional football now. It has changed significantly. Managers have become 12th man of the team and only Jose happened to be that only 12th man amongst club. Just see his goal celebrations you will know it. And if you want to ask what winning means to those supporters who were facing chants “you are not that good” from these so called “modest” supporters of best clubs. Ask Andy he has seen almost all the up-downs of Chelsea in recent past.
And yeah time will tell.
Sorry Andy to consume so much commenting space.
Posted from
India -
*amongst all other clubs. (rather than amongst club in above post)
Posted from
India -
“Yes Jose had become Hero from Zero in less that 3-4 years when Wenger, Lippi and Fergie had to spend their careers. But something was different with this man.”
Now, without wanting to comment too much, I find that you’re a touch too kind with Mourinho. Sure, he only had one or perhaps two seasons to prove he could be the “Hero” Abramovich wanted. But he inherited a group that had finished 2nd in the League, semi-finalist in the Champions League, and had so much money to spend that he could buy Carvalho, Ferreira, Tiago Mendes, Drogba, Robben and Nuno Morais… Lippi inherited a similar position (Juventus 2nd in domestic league before he became manager), having however a lot less money to spend, and won the Serie A title the following season, and the Champions’ League the following year. Ferguson took charge of a weak Manchester United side that had been 4th the previous season, but had sold Mark Hughes, and in November were last (Ferguson took charge on Nov. 6th). Ferguson didn’t have the same transfer budget as Mourinho had, and still managed to bring Man Utd to 2nd place the following season. After another black season (11th), Ferguson won the League cup in 1989-1990, and in 1990-1991 won the Cup Winner’s Cup. This was before the bosman ruling and the first season that English clubs were allowed back in UEFA competitions.
Looking at the three, I’d place Mourinho behind Ferguson and Lippi. Sure, he’s good. Very good. But when Lippi was in a similar position, he won the Champion’s League. And Ferguson, despite a limited budget and the lack of English football’s prestige (post-Heysel), managed to win in Europe on his first try.
Now, Mourinho’s ability is not in question here, but rather the appreciation you make of it. He won the league twice. Great. But with almost un-limited transfer funds, and a squad that was already one of the best in Europe, expectations are (as they should be) higher than with other clubs.
Posted from
France -
Hello everyone,
Just written a little piece about Chelsea’s last fortnight on SquadGod’s Blog. Comments more than welcome!
http://squadgod.com/blog/144/my-way-or-the-highway
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Wow. My first look at this post in the last couple of days since the Man Utd defeat. Great words, great sentiments and Adam forget the apology you deserve the space as does Harold - I will be visiting you!!
I could go on for ever and ever so much I could write a book.
Only as far back as managers ie Ranieri was mentioned!
What about Vialli, Gullit, Hoddle and the rest I can go back as far as Docherty to pledge my ‘Since 66′ fame as a Chelsea fan.
I am still head spinning regarding Jose’s departure and the quick replacement of Grant, but as my son said to me when Grant first arrived - there is the next Chelsea manager - astute or a calculated guess?!?!?!
KTBFFH
Posted from
United States
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