Jose Mourinho: ‘Boring Is 10 Years Without A Title’
At yet another entertaining Jose Mourinho press conference, the Chelsea FC boss was again forced to address complaints that his side have dominated the Premier League on the basis of a ‘boring’ brand of football. In classic Mourinho style, he continued to refute the claims while firing fairly blatant shots at Arsene Wenger.
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During this weekend’s goalless draw with Arsenal, Gunners fans were heard chanting “boring, boring Chelsea” while they watched Olivier Giroud and company repeatedly fail to penetrate a well-organised Chelsea. Mourinho responded to this by describing a future in which football is just “a beautiful green grass carpet without goals” where the “team with more ball possession wins the game”.
The Blues boss then carried on, questioning why a team that has scored the 2nd highest number of goals in the league this season is considered boring whereas “a team that has 70 percent of the ball possession and cannot win the game” is not.
“It’s quite a big contradiction. Football started a few centuries ago and the objective was one, but now it looks like the objective is another one.
“For me, I am very simple in my analysis. Football is about putting the ball in the net of your opponent and stopping your opponent.”
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These comments and the whole debate itself raises interesting issues about the aims of those getting paid to play football being pitted against the wishes of those that pay to watch football. Ultimately it is the fans who are funding the club and thus should it not be the primary objective to keep supporters entertained?
Let’s first look at football from a business perspective. In any sport, the main objective is to win although undoubtedly the extent to which this is the sole goal will vary dependent on which level the sport is being played at. A Sunday league team or your local cricket club, for example, are probably more concerned with heading down the pub afterwards, but even these people who are largely involved for the social scene are not turning up just to lose.
Now, when you are a professional footballer and you are getting paid to play the sport, this is all amplified. Your job is to ensure that you help the team win. This extends to the coaches and in fact any employee in the club set-up. The club makes the bulk of its money from winning, and hence winning should be prioritised in any way.
Football is a results-driven business and winning, in whatever fashion, aids the business in growing.
Furthermore, success grows a team’s fan-base, in turn opening more revenue channels and further allowing the club to expand in a business sense. This will happen no matter how supposedly boring the brand of play is. Any Chelsea fan is almost certain to overlook the accusations of being boring when the team is on the verge of a league and cup double.
Success will keep supporters buying a replica shirt and filling out Stamford Bridge on match-day. The few fans who may turn off as a result of being bored are most probably the casual supporters who never really contribute to Chelsea’s revenue anyway.
Additionally, should Chelsea be concerned with satisfying fans of other clubs? Absolutely not. A club should only ensure their supporters, the ones who pay them, are happy and therefore they should not pay attention to any of these accusations of dull football coming from other supporters or the media.
However, it must be admitted that despite looking good early on, since the turn of the year the standard of Chelsea’s play has significantly dropped off. Whether you attribute this to injuries or any other reason, it is hard to deny this as a fact. Importantly, though, Blues fans don’t care.
Credit: CFC Unofficial https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfcunofficial/16507631718/
Football is, like it or not, a results-driven business and winning, in whatever fashion, aids the business in growing. Trying to invalidate success by claiming that it has been achieved in a boring manner is simply the jealous cries of sore losers.
There is in no doubt an ideal situation where great football can be paired with great success, but how many teams out there are like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona? Atletico Madrid won La Liga last season with a hard-grafting style but were heralded as heroes. While they are a comparatively smaller club and this can be used to a certain extent to justify their adulation, is this not a hypocrisy?
Are Chelsea boring? Yes. Despite Mourinho’s constant pointing to the fact that his side head most offensive statistics, they have averaged under two goals per game so far this year and have, at times, underwhelmed. However, should this be used to criticise the success Chelsea have nonetheless enjoyed? Absolutely not. If you asked any football fan whether they would prefer possession football and 4th position, or slightly drab football and a league title, you would be hard pressed to find a person who opts for the former.
Jose is right, 10 years without a title is even more boring.
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