Oh Chelsea We Love You! Jose Mourinho Sacking And Other Midweek Ramblings
By Zahir Gilani
With another disappointing loss for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea FC, it’s time for a more light-hearted take on affairs.
A mate of mine follows the German Bundesliga closely. In an attempt to put Leicester City’s season in perspective, I asked him if this is comparable to Borussia Dortmund winning back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012. He pointed out that before Dortmund won the league they already were a top five club.
He then offered Montpellier, who won France’s Ligue 1 in 2011/12 out of nowhere after finishing 14th the previous year.
Leicester also finished 14th last season and now sit at the top of the table, so if not unprecedented this is quite a rare feat. I wonder if they’ll be able to turn down the £30 million that someone will surely offer them for Riyad Mahrez.
Leicester did Chelsea in on Monday night, and if there are any CFC fans who are wondering how and why, Jose Mourinho provided an explanation:
What caught my attention was the specificity with which Jose Mourinho broke down Leicester’s goals – “Vardy’s diagonal runs and Mahrez’s left foot”– situations that Mourinho prepped his players for yet situations that they failed to address.
Why did this catch my attention? Because it reminded me of this post match interview during Jose Mourinho’s final season at Real Madrid after they lost 4-1 to Klopp’s Dortmund:
Notice that Mourinho breaks down the specificity of Robert Lewandowski’s movement and how on this occasion he similarly prepared his players to no avail.
So what does this tell me? Perhaps just like his last year in Madrid, Chelsea’s players have tuned Mourinho out. But Chelsea’s fans haven’t.
If Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United were in a relegation battle at this point in the season, the manager would have been sent packing. Liverpool and United fans were flying banners over stadiums to get David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers fired when they were competing for top six.
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Every year Arsenal fans reignite the “Wenger Out” campaign only to extinguish it briefly before the time comes to light the embers once more.
United are currently a top four side and fans remain unhappy with Louis Van Gaal. I asked a Manchester United fan who he would rather have as his manager, Van Gaal or Jurgen Klopp? I’ll tell you what he said in bit.
Unlike United supporters, I am proud of my fellow Blues fans. For better or worse we have stuck our foot in the ground, drawn our line in the sand, unrelentingly thrown our support behind our flailing manager and voiced loudly that WE WANT MOURINHO.
Bravo. We are worse this season than any of the top clubs whose fan base insist on getting rid of their managers. Loyalty is an undervalued virtue. Who’s plastic now?
Related Story: Jose Mourinho’s Brutally Honest Interview Is The Tip Of The Iceberg
Chelsea FC are the English team who have won the last two European trophies; the 2012 Champions League and the 2013 Europa League
Speaking of which, the Champions League draw is out. Chelsea face PSG again which presents us with the mouthwatering matchup of Angel Di Maria v Cesar Azpilicueta. I can’t wait. However, I can wait forever to see Di Maria take on Branislav Ivanovic…no thank you.
Arsenal drew Barcelona which will allow for an interesting science experiment. If we threw an ice cube into a fire place would it melt quicker than Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker will against Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez?
And let’s not forget that Barcelona will be adding Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan to their squad in January.
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Patrick Bamford turned down Harvard University to play football. Does he ever wonder what Boston is like while sitting on Crystal Palace’s bench?
Argentine and Sevilla FC midfielder Ever Banega is slowly turning into a great two way player. I watched him many times and he is getting better at controlling a game. When the opposition has the ball he stymies them and gets it right back. Once he has it, he’ll nearly always make the most intelligent play available. Banega has also shown a knack for scoring timely goals for club and country. He may turn out to be the perfect foil for Messi and La Albiceleste in the next World Cup.
Aston Villa sold Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke, their two best players, and now they look like a team that will be competing for mid table in next year’s Championship.
Wolfsburg sold their best player, Kevin de Bruyne, and still finished top of their Champions League group.
In that same group, PSV Eindhoven, who sold their best player Memphis Depay to Manchester United, still advanced over them to the round of 16.
So let’s have a dig at our Red Devil brethren shall we. Congratulations, under Louis Van Gaal, you have accomplished what I thought could not be done; you turned Angel Di Maria into an expendable.
You had no place in your squad for the electricity of Di Maria, Shinji Kagawa, Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck and Adnan Januzaj. Now even Depay and Ashley Young are falling out of favor while you continue to rely on the plodding, laborious efforts of Wayne Rooney, Marouane Fellaini and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Ah United. You spent £250m.
If Chelsea spent £250m we’d be unstoppable. You’ve spent £250m and are unwatchable. Why can’t you be like your neighbors and drop £32m on a decent central defender like Eliaquim Mangala…actually nevermind.
You sent Chicharito to Leverkusen and he’s scored more goals for them than anyone on your team has for you. And yes, thank you for pointing out and that Chelsea parted ways with both de Bruyne and Juan Mata, but those two players we’re sold for huge fees that the club used to buy other players. For what purpose was Javier Hernandez loaned?
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So when I asked the United fan who he would rather have as his manager he said Jurgen Klopp. Think about the state of that club when their supporters are jealous of Liverpool’s manager…
I then asked the United fan who he wanted to play in the Europa League and he smashed his head into the wall.