Jose Mourinho failed in his attempt to clean up his Chelsea legacy
By Travis Tyler
Jose Mourinho can rarely help himself when it comes to passing the blame. He has failed in his attempt to clean a black mark on his Chelsea legacy.
Nothing will ever take away Jose Mourinho’s three Premier League titles, FA Cup, or the three League Cups won with Chelsea. Until surpassed, he will remain the Blues’ greatest manager of all time. Even today, his influence is felt in the culture of the club instilled during his first stint.
But Mourinho is far from perfect. He is abrasive, sticks by his beliefs, and will pass any bad spot in his career onto another person’s head. His first stint involved little of this. But his second stint is filled with regrets that he is now attempting to blame upon others.
The latest passing of the buck comes with Mohamed Salah. Granted, few would have expected Salah to have exploded the way he did this season. Even if it is only a one season blip, it is a Ballon d’Or challenging one. But it is even more amazing when compared to his time at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho. Then, he was regarded as a flop. The blame for that has been rightly placed on Mourinho’s head. But he will have none of that.
Mourinho has tried to spin Salah’s time at Chelsea. The Special One says he wanted the club to buy Salah. And that he saw the potential in him. And then the board chose to sell him. Mourinho absolves himself in any part of the selling process.
To put it simply, that is just not what happened. Mourinho did attempt to use Salah in the same vein that he tried to use Kevin De Bruyne. But he gave neither a long leash and when they were not immediately fantastic, he moved away from them. Both players found playing time hard if not impossible to come by. Both asked to leave (either permanently or on loan). The board, seeing a player that was not playing, protected their investment by recouping some profit.
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Had Mourinho used Salah (or De Bruyne), the club would not have allowed them to leave so they could make a profit off of a bit part player. Mourinho wants to shape that up as the board not giving the player a chance when in reality he was not giving the player a chance.
Mourinho’s second stint should be remembered for the Premier League title and the League Cup. But it never will be. The third season disaster gave way to his betrayal to sign with Manchester United. And that stint looks like more and more of a waste when every player Mourinho did not rate goes on to be one of the Premier League’s best players.
A similar thread is starting to crop up about his time at Manchester United in regards to Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford. And in the next five years, when Mourinho is trying to justify his failure at United, it would not be unlikely to see Martial and Rashford lighting the Premier League up at another club.
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Mourinho’s defense of himself is ultimately self destructive. Merely by trying to pass the buck on Salah, he is failing at cleaning up his Chelsea legacy. If anything, he is tarnishing it more. Mourinho should be remembered as one of the all time greats but he just cannot stop himself from ruining that image.