Jose Mourinho understands Chelsea even if he gives no benefit of the doubt

Jose Mourinho’s latest comments are being spun every which way but they show he is a man who understands Chelsea even if he gives no benefit of the doubt.

For better or worse, Chelsea remains the house that Jose Mourinho built. Only twice in the Roman Abramovich era has the club actively tried to break from the culture he created (Andre Villas-Boas in 2011/2012 and Maurizio Sarri in 2018/2019) but ultimately the club returns to what worked.

While Frank Lampard and his staff (including several other Mourinho molded individuals) may be tactically different from a Mourinho team, culturally there are sure to be many shared features. Jose Mourinho has been spending his time off as one of the best pundits in the game and he has of course been asked about Chelsea multiple times.

Mourinho’s latest comments come off better than his previous ones, but they have still proven ripe for a media spin. While many choose to take anything Mourinho says as a negative (in fairness, his reputation does precede him), his latest comments show that he gets Chelsea and its fans more than most in the world even if he is not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The main thrust of Mourinho’s comments and the one most popcorn sized is “I hope they (the fans) don’t get used to losing”. That mostly stems from the feel good factor that is surrounding Stamford Bridge even though the overall results have not necessarily been what is desired.

That very much gels with Mourinho’s culture. He always understood that half the battle of winning a match was believing winning was mandatory. Once you allow for a defeat, you find them happening all the time. To Mourinho, those moral victories of playing well but not winning mean nothing and it is how clubs like AC Milan or Manchester United go from juggernauts to also rans.

On the surface level, Mourinho is dead on the money. The feel good factor is back at Stamford Bridge and fans remain excited despite results not being perfect. But it becomes very easy to go from that excitement to accepting anything and everything that comes. And then all of a sudden the club is fighting for a top four trophy as an achievement while patting themselves on the back for playing pretty.

The part mostly left out in these soundbites is when Mourinho says he does not think that will happen. But to make the quote at all, even while acknowledging the transfer ban and the reality of the gulf between Liverpool and the rest of the league, is to show a lack of trust in the fans. He is not giving them the benefit of the doubt for the very culture he put in place.

Chelsea fans have rarely been the type to value aesthetics over results. It is only in recent years when Pep Guardiola has made people take all the wrong lessons from his style that it became “the right way to play” in the eyes of some. And while Chelsea fans are enjoying the aesthetics far more this season than last, that does not mean the results have been thrown to the wayside. It just means the reality of the situation has been accepted.

Because of the transfer ban, Chelsea was unable to reinforce an aging squad. They have dipped into the academy and loan army but the reality of the situation is that Chelsea has a manager and at least three (possibly soon to be more) starters that were all in the Championship last season. Competing for the title was never on the cards and fans knew that. The fans are less excited about the moral victories than they are about the sheer “Chelseainess” of all of this. The Blues feel like the Blues again for the first time in several seasons. And while it is not as the juggernaut that the club once was, because of the ban and the inexperience that is all okay.

The fans will not suddenly be okay with results like this when the ban is gone and the season is over a third of the way through. Mourinho is not really giving them the benefit of the doubt. Chelsea is a club that will always demand success. That is the very culture Mourinho instilled.

But for now the situation is different and requires patience. The fans remain hungry while accepting the reality of the world as it is in this particular moment. Mourinho understands that, he just needs to understand that the fans do too.