Chelsea, Mourinho and Spurs: Fans have loyalty, professionals have jobs

It is becoming increasingly clear that fans have a warped sense of what loyalty is supposed to mean. Jose Mourinho won Chelsea three Premier League titles and four domestic cups. He owes nothing to no one.

Many fans have a picture of Francesco Totti, John Terry and others who spent their entire senior careers at one club as the ideals of loyalty. Deciding to play your whole career at one club is a choice. No player owes that to the fans. Footballers are professionals. They play football for money. If they get better deals they are expected to move.

The same applies to managers. Football managers are professionals as well. They manage football teams. For money. They are not obligated to spend their whole careers at one club. If they choose to and the club allows them to, they can.

Jose Mourinho came to Chelsea in 2004 and left for the first time in 2007. He was re-employed by Chelsea in 2013 and left a second time in 2016. In approximately five years with Chelsea, Mourinho won three Premier League titles. That’s outrageous!

He was sacked from the Chelsea job twice. The second time was after a defeat to Leicester City in Leicester City’s title-winning season.

Jose Mourinho never disrespected Chelsea or Chelsea fans while he was at Chelsea. He instilled in the club’s players and fans the Us-vs.-The-World mentality. Blues fans got carried away by Mourinho’s passion and confused it for blind loyalty, forgetting along the way that he is first and foremost a football manager, before being a Chelsea manager.

The hypocrisy from some Chelsea fans concerning Jose Mourinho becoming manager at Tottenham Hotspur is getting me riled up. Last season, when Maurizio Sarri was stirring up discontent amongst the Chelsea fans, some among them claimed they wanted Mourinho back. Some ChelsTwit loud mouths shouted them down and called them names. Many of them claimed that Jose Mourinho was finished, “He has nothing to offer anymore!!!” they all echoed.

In the haze of trying to play a façade of attacking football, many fans began to despise managers that made Chelsea what it was: winners. Many fans claimed they would never take Mourinho back at Chelsea, in large part because he “did not understand the modern game.”

When Mourinho managed Manchester United and eventually got sacked, it reinforced the narrative that Pep Guardiola is the supreme lord and Mourinho is a has-been. Manchester United fans dragged Mourinho’s name in the mud and many Chelsea fans – those who more than anyone else should have known better – joined in. They worshipped Erik Ten Hag’s Ajax, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester city, pointing to these clubs as what they wanted their club to be. These “fans” did not know about loyalty then.

On November 19, 2019, Tottenham Hotspur sacked Mauricio Pochettino and rumours of Mourinho becoming Spurs head coach gathered momentum. Some hypocrites came out crying for Mourinho to be loyal to Chelsea and not go to Spurs.

Since I’m apparently an idiot, help me understand. Jose Mourinho is without a job. A job offer comes in, and he should not take it because… Chelsea? Do these entitled fans not realize that the world does not revolve around them? They don’t want anything to do with him, but they also don’t want other clubs to have anything to do with him. What is this, kindergarten?

Many people are parroting that loyalty is supposed to mean something. Why should Jose Mourinho be loyal to Chelsea fans when a) he is no longer a Chelsea manager and b) many of these same Chelsea fans turned on him because attacking football?

Jose Mourinho is a professional. When he was contracted to Porto he gave them his all. Same with Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United. That is how it’s supposed to be and it’s how he goes about his job.

The world does not start with Chelsea fans and it will not end with them, despite what you’ve been made to believe.

Mourinho’s job is to manage football teams. He will do exactly that to the best of his ability. Loyalty from managers should only be expected – nay, demanded – from personnel contracted to your club. Loyalty from players should only be expected from players contracted to the club while they’re at the club. When a player leaves to join a team’s rivals, he becomes part of the rivals.

Sentiments influence football decisions, but not to the extent that managers are expected to remain unemployed becuz muh lOYalTy!

If Mourinho is supposedly finished, why does it bother you that he’s going to your rivals? Are you scared that he’s not actually finished? Are you scared he’ll make something out of them and hurt your team?

So to whom this may concern: Jose Mourinho going to Spurs does not undermine his loyalty he is under no obligation to have.

Stop crying about loyalty from a person you were not loyal to and is not contracted to your club. Just stop. You lot are embarrassing yourselves. You sound like spoiled kids.