₦airaland Forum

Jose Mourinho joined his Chelsea players for their annual Christmas lunch at the club's Cobham training ground just hours before he was sacked, but there was little festive spirit to go around.

Rather than pulling crackers and telling bad jokes over their Christmas turkey, the Chelsea players sensed something was up from Mourinho's sombre mood after he had taken a downbeat Thursday training session in which he sported a newly shaved head and stubble.

But it was not until just before 2pm when a Chelsea player, who had stayed behind later than many of his team-mates, spotted members of the club's hierarchy and rumours started circulating that Mourinho's time as manager was up.

At the same time players were exchanging text messages speculating on what might be going on, Mourinho was informed of his sacking by chairman Bruce Buck and director Eugene Tenenbaum in a meeting that lasted only 10 minutes.

Virtually all of the players had left Cobham by then and they did not receive any official announcement from the club before word spread between team-mates and staff members via telephone, text message and over WhatsApp. Some former Chelsea players got wind of Mourinho's dismissal before the current squad.

Mourinho stayed at Cobham to clear his office desk for around two hours after getting the news before being driven off the premises in his Jaguar, presumably never to return. His second coming was over in the most dramatic circumstances.

The Leicester City defeat proved to be the tipping point and Telegraph Sport can reveal Mourinho accused his players of betrayal three times around that game.

Mourinho shocked reporters by claiming his players had "betrayed" his work after the 2-1 loss, but the attack did not come as a surprise to the squad. The Portuguese also warned his team against "betrayal" in the tactical meeting ahead of the Leicester game and used the word again during the half-time team talk at the King Power Stadium.

He had become obsessed with the fact an old Porto contact told him that his former club knew of his plans to drop Cesc Fabregas before last week's vital Champions League match at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea won the game, but Mourinho was convinced he had at least one player in his squad working against him and it was not the first time this season the 52-year-old felt information was being leaked, whether on purpose or by accident.

A few months earlier, Mourinho had spoken to players of the need to be careful about what they told their agents and fixers after numerous stories had appeared alleging he had fallen out with various members of his squad.

Mourinho believed pieces of training ground gossip were being twisted against him and was also worried that players were innocently talking to outsiders about selection issues that were then getting out.

It was in October, when the former Real Madrid manager hit out at the "rats" around the Blues camp as he refused to give out any team news ahead of the Southampton defeat. He also became more guarded over how he set his team up during training, so that players were not so sure over who would be starting games.

In truth, however, Mourinho's problems started a long time before October when a total of 10 players decided they wanted to leave Chelsea immediately after the club had won the Premier League title so convincingly.

On the outside Chelsea looked destined to enjoy years of success under Mourinho, but there were sources around the club predicting a meltdown.

While it was no great surprise that fringe players such as Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Filipe Luis, Juan Cuadrado, Mohamed Salah, Victor Moses and Nathan Ake wanted to play first-team football elsewhere, it was concerning that Diego Costa, Willian and Oscar fancied moves away.

Chelsea did not let Costa, Willian or Oscar go, but Mourinho felt he needed to secure some major summer signings to be confident of making a successful title defence. The fact only Radamel Falcao and deputy goalkeeper Asmir Begovic arrived before the first day of the Premier League season was a source of great frustration and contributed to his dark mood from the off.

Mourinho was also concerned by what he had seen on Chelsea's post-season and pre-season tours, despite the fact he had given his squad an extra week off during the summer as reward for their title success.

Teenage midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek was not the only Chelsea player to miss the team bus or turn up late for a meeting during the end-of-season trip to Thailand and Australia.

Relaxed attitudes were evident in America during pre-season, when Mourinho was so disgusted at a training game in which one of his group of players fell three goals behind that he called off the practice match entirely. It was also evident that Costa had not reported in an acceptable physical state after a summer of excess.

Some members of the Chelsea squad complained of still suffering the effects of jet-lag from the tour of America by the time they lost the Community Shield to Arsenal and there was a feeling of chaos inside the dressing-room ahead of the first Premier League game of the season against Swansea City.

Players had been left confused by Mourinho's decision to start with what was considered a reserve team in the final pre-season game against Fiorentina, only to throw all of the big guns on before the hour. Captain John Terry had been among the starters and feared he would be left out of the Swansea opener.

All the frustration and anger of poor pre-season performances and failed summer transfer bids for Everton defender John Stones manifested itself in Mourinho lashing out at club doctor Eva Carneiro for running on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard against Swansea.

Carneiro was subsequently relieved of her first-team duties and privileges by Mourinho in a move that sparked a seemingly never-ending wave of criticism and negative publicity, and eventually led to the doctor's departure from Stamford Bridge that is still not settled.

It is too easy to point at the fall-out over Carneiro as the beginning of the end for Mourinho, but there is no doubt that his actions shocked Chelsea players and members of the board.

Fears over his behaviour grew as, having effectively got rid of Carneiro, Mourinho turned his attention towards the officials and the Football Association as he lashed out over bad results and questionable decisions.

Mourinho was hit with a £50,000 fine and a suspended stadium ban for claiming referees were "afraid" to give Chelsea decisions after the defeat to Southampton. He later branded the decision a "disgrace."

Worse was to follow, however, as Mourinho was hit with a one-game stadium suspension for his extraordinary reaction to Nemanja Matic's red card in the defeat to West Ham United. He twice refused to leave referee Jon Moss's dressing-room at Upton Park and accused the official of being "f***ing weak" during the half-time interval before being sent to the stands.

Serving his ban, Mourinho watched the defeat to Stoke City at the beginning of November from the Crewe Hall Hotel, where the team had stayed the previous night.

That proved to be a small moment of enlightenment, as Mourinho accepted appeals from Chelsea staff to stop the attacks on officials and the FA, and keep the focus on his team and the need to improve performances.

But Mourinho could simply not inspire any consistent form out of his players, despite trying both the carrot and the stick approach with Hazard and Diego Costa.

Having dropped and criticised Hazard earlier in the season, Mourinho held a heart-to-heart with the Belgian the day after the West Ham defeat and agreed to play him in his favoured number 10 role.

Hazard's performances improved, but he has now gone 27 games without a goal and Mourinho very much left it to interpretation whether or not the forward had been sufficiently injured to substitute himself against Leicester.

Costa had escaped punishment for returning for pre-season training overweight and had been the one player to avoid the axe up until the trip to Tottenham Hotspur. His reaction was to toss a bib in the direction of his manager and retreat to the team bus minutes after the final whistle.

He won his place back in the team after having a one-on-one chat with Mourinho, but Costa was still a shadow of his former self in front of goal against Porto and Leicester, and has netted just seven times since January.

Costa's drought has coincided with former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku passing the 50 goals mark for Everton. With Chelsea desperately needing goals and looking for a striker in January, Lukaku's form has caused frustration that he was not given more of a chance by Mourinho.

The feeling inside Stamford Bridge was that Moruinho could have done more to encourage Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne, who is currently outperforming Belgium team-mate Hazard, that they could eventually become first-team regulars at Chelsea.

Similarly, Mourinho showed little patience with Cuadrado and Salah, who have impressed in Italy, and, contrary to his promises, never made a convincing attempt to properly integrate 19-year-old Loftus-Cheek into his team.

Loftus-Cheek only has 18 months to run on his contract and Chelsea chiefs had been concerned that Mourinho's treatment of the highly-rated midfielder threatened to make negotiations over a new deal particularly difficult.

Ultimately, though, it was quite simply results that did for Mourinho. When owner Roman Abramovich backed him in the form of a club statement that also made it clear there must be an improvement, Chelsea were in 16th place in the table. Two months on and the Blues are in exactly the same position, just one point above the relegation zone.

Mourinho is understood to have confided in friends that nothing he tried was working and that was clearly a view shared by Abramovich and the Chelsea board. Christmas dinner probably never tasted quite so sour.

diggz:
@ lala see what I got from espn....

Pep Guardiola is a fraud. Bayern would be mad to give him a third season. That's two years in a row that his team get their rear ends handed to them in the semifinal, 3-10 on aggregate, are you kidding me?

Who cares if he won the Bundesliga? It's kinda hard not to win the Bundesliga, to be honest, when you manage Bayern. Every single guy who has managed the club in the past 19 years has won the title, except for Jurgen Klinsmann. This is a league where the second-place club is freaking Wolfsburg, a team with Bas Dost and Nicklas Bendtner sharing time up front.

It's a one-team league, especially now that Borussia Dortmund have imploded, and the only team is the one Pep is lucky enough to coach.

And guess what? It's getting worse. Bayern won the Treble before Pep's arrival. In his first season, they got the Double. This year it's just that measly German championship. Next season? Logical progression suggests it will be a big fat zero if they stick with Pep and his nonsense.

High line? Pressing? Weirdo formations with a jockey-sized fullback like Rafinha at center-half? Come on now. How about working on some defending so two otherwise fine centre-backs like Jerome Boateng and Mehdi Benatia aren't made to look like statues frozen in time?

Don't be fooled by this guy. Sure, Pep won some domestic and European silverware at Barcelona, but that was because he inherited a great team. After all, Frank Rijkaard won plenty at Barca as well, with some of the same players. What happened to him? His last gig was managing Saudi Arabia, who sacked him in 2013.

Ultimately, Pep is exposed because, simply put, he can beat up bad teams but struggles against good ones. Want proof? Witness his record against the teams currently in second to sixth place right now in the Bundesliga: Wolfsburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, Augsburg and Schalke. Played 10, won 3, drew 3, lost 4, scored 10, conceded 12. A losing record.

Enough of the hype. Enough of the outdated tiki-taka. This emperor has no clothes.

That's fine. Defeat has consequences and they range from criticism to a boot to the backside.

Except once the air clears, you need to take a step back and ask yourself on what basis you should judge a manager.

The cliché that "results are everything" is downright foolish. Results, particularly in a low-scoring game such as football, are a function of many things, including chance and probability. This is especially true in knockout competitions.

TheGoodJoe:
I am not bashing him. The coaches who spend more to bring in players most times will do better than a coach who spends less.

Last season, Man City did not reinforce much and we did not perform as we did the season before. It happened to Mancini too.

Mourinho is lucky to coach at places where he can wipe out who he wants and buy who he wants. When he fails, he simply says it, I did not get the players I want.

Remember, he had Eto'o, Demba Ba and Torres and Said he had no striker.

He dropped them and spent huge for Costa.

Chelseafan1:
I won't go down the insult lane trying to make you understand my point, certainly nnot because of this baseless argument.

My initial stances was that Mourinho isn't a saint and he made the wrong calls on so many occasion which played a part in his downfall, I dunno which of the players let him down cos Hazard on a good day is not a prolific goal scorer, he has created chances this season, had attempts at goals, this myt just be the true him in a bad form, Terry can't do more than he's doing, Matic isn't totally worse than last season, Willian improved, Fabregas, Costa and Oscar are the ones who really retrogressed, to me.


I wonder what you will say if this same squad finds it hard to defeat Sunderland and Man utd in the next few matches.

TheGoodJoe:
Mourinho sticking with them and eating their insults, makes me wonder. If Hazard does not one to play, he can stay at home. Mourinho had Kenedy on the bench all this while. He might not match Hazard's class on the field, but he wants it more than Hazard.

Why stick with an insulting Costa when he had Loic Remy itching to prove he had more to offer.

The players lost their motivation and Mojo. Mourinho played a part in it.

Since Arsene Wenger last won the League, Mourinho came to England, won the league twice, when to Italy won the treble at Inter, went to La Liga, won the League, came back to England and won the league again.

Chelseafan1:
This is my last post to you too, as you deliberately ignored it.



[b]talking about Hazard liking Madrid's page, didn't Messi like Chelsea's page back then too, how did the Coach and club handle the situation back then??

et's even look at this critically, you and I have watched these guys play multiple times this season and you see them playing beautiful football even better than most teams that are ahead of us on the log, lack of goals has been their major undoing.

Vardy has 15 league goals already, Costa has just 3, MSN has been the trio scoring more than 80% of Barca's goals this season, if Costa has been good enough to get us at least 12 goals this season, maybe Mou will still be our manager as I type this.

Chelseafan1:
My stance still remains that, Mou isn't a saint, he made a host of wrong decisions which affected him, it is not coincidence that he had to fight his players at Madrid and also did the same with this set of players.


Mourinho is too controversial, is he the only one in England, you hardly find an opposition fan who likes him, that's not good for this kind of job, he's a top manager, he should tone it down a bit, when was the last time other manager had problems with the Refs and FA? Rooney that earns more than any of our players has been serving LVG will bullshiit, Hazard, Costa haven't been worse than him, yet Gaal has been supportive.

Let's even look at this critically, you and I have watched these guys play multiple times this season and you see them playing beautiful football even better than most teams that are ahead of us on the log, lack of goals has been their major undoing.

Vardy has 15 league goals already, Costa has just 3, MSN has been the trio scoring more than 80% of Barca's goals this season, if Costa has been good enough to get us at least 12 goals this season, maybe Mou will still be our manager as I type this.


There's no way u can try to convince me, Mou will still be apportioned the biggest blame in all of this.

Chelseafan1:
Just look at you, what nonsense are you even talking about, He praised these players after they delivered the title and a league cup for him last season, he signed Costa and Fabregas just last season, I dunno how you expect him not to praise them and them also not turning up in their first season with so much expectations.

If you were happy he sold De bryune, Mata, Schurrle, David Luiz and with his poor man management allowing Cech leave, that's foolishness cos not all of us were happy about it.

Ever since things went sour for the team, tell me how many times he has criticised his players both in private and publicly.

If you think all his actions towards them and also to other managers, back room staff and the FA governing body has no way of affecting these players psychologically on the long run, then you obviously need your brain checked.


Lest I forget, when you eventually become a medical doctor and you get bad-mouthed by your boss after doing well for him the previous year and making his business tick, you can continue to give him your 100% so that the whole credit goes to him while you are there claiming being professional with your work, it is people like you that will first tender your letter of resignation especially when you are being coveted by better and well grounded establishments.

Stop exhorting Mou to high heavens abeg, he's not all that a saint, when you become a boss later in life, treat your staff and subordinates badly and watch your business grow very well....na u go make profit pass.

kokaneprodigy:
Oga stop this your talk. Mourinho betrayed them first.
They worked very hard for him last season just for him to take all the glory to himself. Using "I" instead of "WE".
As soon as they started performing below par in the early part of this season he distanced himself from them, left them out to dry he replaced "I" with "they", Costa, Hazard, Eva, Ref, ball boy. If u work with such a manager will u be motivated.?
These players are human they ain't robots emotions run thru their veins too.
One of the responsibilities of a manger in any works of life is to motivate his or her subordinates.

PietroRico:
reports that he's suffering from depression and alcoholism.. Unconfirmed reports sha but it's all over the United community on Twitter

PietroRico:
anyone seen the latest reports on Rooney?

pamcode:
to think that Chelsea could sign benitez is in ltself a wonder or samuel eto

sephia:
Hiddink won the FA cup
Ancellotti won the league and FA cup
Benitez won UEFA cup
Di Matteo won the Champions league

All these in less than 7years. Nothing JM did others didn't so and some more. I still believe without money JM would have won nothing. Nobody should mention Porto abeg. Flukes happen.

Ibime:
Not to forget his brother buried an axe in a black mans head in a racist attack. . .

nateevs:
Let me tell you what will happen should Jose take the job at United next season.
He will have 200% of the board's support. He will be allowed to spend 100s of millions.
He will spend 100s of millions of one-time wonders, work-horses and average Joes.

These average Joes will run into the ground for him. The will win the league. United fans will be happy winning the league again, being consistent at the top. Compared to where they have been in recent years, it's glory days again.

He will organize them at back the back. They will be ultra defensive and admirable but as always, very lacklustre going forward.
He will manage to convince them pragmatism wins. He will win the hearts of some.

The next season, the fights will begin. He will take a pop at Wenger and now Chelsea.
He will fight the media, the referees and anyone in between, the moment they lose. Some of his fans will still like him, some will stop.

He will park the bus against Chelsea, City, Arsenal. This is where the anger will begin.
Die-hard United fans will crave expansive football once again. He will not change.
He will not bring any young player through, the work horses will start to fail.

Blaming will begin. He probably finishes the season winning the league again.

Third season, full blown fight against everyone. The workhorses (the usual 11 - the untouchables) stop performing.
United fans demand better football to the eye, despite just winning the league.

More public fights. Blames. Name calling. Fans of other clubs start to hate United because of JM. People call them classless. United's PR suffers a blow. Boards' backing drops to 70% . . . .

Beginning of the end.



Nihilist, what do you think will happen with Jose when he gets to United? Remember that this will a club not notorious for undermining their manager.

raumdeuter:
Almost? Jose wasnt just almost sacked he was actually fired not once not twice 3 times in the last decade

Ancelotti would never claim it was player sabotage that got him fired like Mourinho

Mourinho was fired for incompetence.

As at today Mourinho left Chelsea 16th on the table. Take a snapshot of it

raumdeuter:
Who are the global superstars in Chelsea that are more than we have at Bayern, PSG, Man City man utd.

Simeone, Pep Ancelotti even Pellegrini are all coaches of top clubs, Enrique also

Why is it that only Mourinho gets into open fights with his players

It happened in madrid, It happened in Chelsea. The same Chelsea where he was worshipped and he could do as he wanted

Players are global superstars and would throw tantrums. Ferguson knew when to send out Beckham and Stam and when to literarily beg Ronaldo and Rooney

Pep knew how to call Zlatans or Etoo bluff and how to worship Xavi or Messi

raumdeuter:
Who are the global superstars in Chelsea that are more than we have at Bayern, PSG, Man City man utd.

Simeone, Pep Ancelotti even Pellegrini are all coaches of top clubs, Enrique also

Why is it that only Mourinho gets into open fights with his players

It happened in madrid, It happened in Chelsea. The same Chelsea where he was worshipped and he could do as he wanted

raumdeuter:
Player power has been ever since and it hasnt stopped some coaches
Ancelotti is loved by most of his players, Pep is loved by most of his players, Simeone is loved by most of his players

nateevs:
Nihilist have you ever wondered why only Chelsea fans and those who have a soft spot have this view about JM?
The truthful answer will tell you why Jose will never get any board's 100% backing.

In most cases, if you are not a Chelsea fan, you dislike Jose. Not for his performances but his attitude.
The same is hardly echoed about Ferguson.

raumdeuter:
The truth is Mourinho's methods were unsustainable over the long haul

His methods are simply to fight every single person around. He wins by making enemies. But when there are no more enemies to make you turn inwards and turn your own staffs into enemies

Actually in Madrid history since I started following football, No madrid coach was given the type of control Mourinho had. Mourinho sacked Jorge Valdano a former player, former coach and Director. Perez got rid of Valdano for Mourinho. Thats as big as it gets

In his first time in England he fought every single person, later turned on his team

In Italy his first job was to figt every single person and coach which was one of the reasons he had to leave immediately

In madrid he fought opponents, Management, players, referees

Need I remind you he was one of the reasons Andres frisk retired because death threats were sent to the best referee in Europe

He came to Chelsea picked up from where he started fought everyone outside, later came inside fought his own staff for treating players, fought the media, fought the FA now his own players

Ferguson despite his own ego was still loved by most of his ex-players, loved by the club and even respected by other coaches

Bimffo:
Apparently Jose Mourinho turned down the £40m Severance package and told them to use it to "rebuild the club"..

Always thinking of us.

raumdeuter:
Na only him dey coach?

How many coaches in the world would claim players sabotaged him not once but twice within a space of 3yrs

The coach is the common denominator in the 2 cases. This tells us this is a problem with the coach not the players

raumdeuter:
Madrid 2013: The players conspired and sabotaged him

Chelsea 2015: the players conspired and sabotaged him

Is this story not getting stale?

elampiro:

I can understand the attack on Martial from mostly Chelsea fans. I think it's a part pay back on United fans rubbishing Hazard in the past 18 months.

The day any Bayern player will fall into this kind of situation, I expect Chelsea fans to also go tear that player to piece.

There will always be pay (back) day.

nateevs:
This post here proves my whole point. How many times have I heard this before? even from the time of AVB being Jose's scout. You hear this "attention to detail" thing the players band about with Jose's methods. From Terry, to Lampard, to his coaches.

But pay attention and you will discover that this attention to details is always directed to the defensive side of the game. Preventing the opposition from scoring.Tell me how many times we ever heard an attacker praise Jose for this attention to detail "IN ATTACK"?

I mean an attacker on TV, detailing how Jose instructs the movement of ball through the channels; how he instructs players ahead of play to move; how he instructs players to move into space;

What we always hear and see is the clear display of Jose's preference for stopping the opposition rather than attacking it. Even Hazard complained last season, that our only game plan in attack is to give the ball to him. Aha!


And this sums up the whole thing - my consistent argument for many years.


Yes he prepped the guys to counter Leicester's attacking prowess but what happened when the plan failed? The obvious response was to go attack and get a goal. What did we do in attack? Absolute Zilch! How were we to even the scores without scoring?

I don't buy this players are not playing to instructions thing. The truth instead is that players in defense have lost confidence. So instead of concentrating on more defensive tactics, let's see if we can maintain the same level of defense and then try to bail ourselves out by outscoring the opposition.

The reality though is that this is never going to happen. So please expect the slump to continue. Brace yourselves!



I repeat, when your whole methodology is predicated on preventing the opposition from scoring, then one day when that defensive unit is faulty (as it is now), you will find it difficult to win games because the very fundamental element that wins games (goal-scoring) has been consistently absent.