GOODBYE JOSE
The second item on the Six O’Clock News tonight featured a middle aged man based in London falling out with a motley group of Europeans and ending up walking away. But enough of David Cameron and his travails with the massed ranks of the EU political leaders; the first item was the end of The Special One.
I am currently listening to 5Live which has gone into Jose Overdrive. There’s a lively discussion between journos and ex-players with contributions from the fans. In fact, it is reminiscent of what the Chelsea dressing room may well have been like as Mark Chapman tries to keep Chris Sutton and Rob Beasley, a Sun journo, apart. Both have different opinions; the Sun man blames the players while Sutton defends them and puts the responsibility on the manager.
And what does the Sage of Shildon, conspicuous by his absence from these pages recently, think? After much thought and consideration I have come to the conclusion that this is a sad day for football as The Special One leaves the club for which he was most suited.
No club in the country is disliked as much as Chelsea. No manager in the country was disliked as much as Mourinho was. They were an ideal fit. The self-styled Special One was loathed away from Stamford Bridge as much as the club that he represented are loathed by the majority of football supporters. Some of the loathing is based on envy- more is based on a genuine dislike of the people who own it, manage it, play for it and watch it.
Mourinho will be missed. He was good copy for the newspapers and especially the sycophantic bunch that followed him around and sniggered at his observations on football.
Whenever he criticised another club or another manager you could hear them chuckling away in the background, driving Jose into even more outrageous statements. Most managers will occasionally say that they were beaten by a better team on the day. They may say that they got the tactics wrong. They may even take some of the blame themselves. Not Jose. It is the referee’s fault. The other team parked the bus. The grass was too long. The ball persons cheated. The weather was poor. The moon was in the wrong house. The bus driver drove too slowly. The plane landed too bumpily. And so on and so on and so on.
In all of that it is never the other team that was better. When we won at Stamford Bridge in April 2014, not a word of praise for a battling performance, just a snarky attack on referee Mike Dean and an appalling display from a snarling oaf called Rui Faria, the Special One’s No 2 that was reminiscent of Chelsea fans from the 80s.
He will be missed by football writers, TV commentators and those Chelsea fans who have as much class as he has. The rest of us are pleased to see the back of him and hope that he is one European immigrant that will not be seen on these shores again. As for Saturday, there will be media frenzy around the game with journalists from all over the world converging on Stamford Bridge to get an earful of the reaction from the Chelsea support to Mourinho going. Our players will have to ignore all of this and focus on their jobs and make sure that the home team’s crisis is even deeper come 4.55 on Saturday. If the Chelsea players disliked Mourinho as much as we are led to believe, they should play with no pressure on them and that could be difficult for us.
On a normal day, the likes of Hazard, Ivanovic, Matic and Willian should be far too good for us. This will not be a normal day and the reaction of the crowd could well be crucial. Will they support the players or the manager? Will they turn on the owner? Will they refuse to handclap to The Terminator? And will they be even more miserable at the end of the game than they were at the start?
The answers to all this and much more will be revealed while I am trooping up and down the carriages of a train giving small children silver bells.
Ho, Ho, Ho.
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Yes the destruction of our coal and steel industry’s completed by a spineless little twerp that thinks denying some Europeans benefits will somehow show that’s he’s standing up for Britain , on yer way you useless sh##e! The same to Mourinho, classless , arrogant spoilt child that lost any pretence of cheeky charm as soon as the going got tough and quickly showed his true colours . Hiddink won’t officially be the manager for our visit but he will be as good as . Expect the the hard put on , multi millionaires of Chelsea who’ve never done a days work in their lives to rally in these hard times . Watch them show solidarity with their fellow countrymen who’s family’s are facing Christmas and New Year on that dole by pulling their fingers out and trying a little harder in their football match with Sunderland . Makes you sick .
I believe he thinks highly of you too.
I would like to think so JEL.
Good riddance to the arrogant little shitehawk! Never liked him, and never convinced of his entitlement to great coach status either. Yes he’s managed squads of multi-million pound rated stars to countless trophies, Geoff Boycott’s auntie could do that! Take a mob of mediocre/below average players and improve them, win trophies with them, then I’ll believe you’re one of the best in the world. PLUS! He’s the game’s most ungracious loser. His “charm” has always eluded me, he’s just a self-promoting big headed wankbangle and the further he ends up from the English game the happier I will be.
And I agree with Pete in that Mourinho and Chelsea were the perfect match. From their media-driven “fashionable” status of the late 60s/early 70s to their obnoxious fans during the bad old days (remember the 85 League Cup Semi? Bad losers) to their mega-rich “we can buy anybody we want” attitude of the last ten years. It all leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and the sooner this medium sized club with very rich owners drop down into the obscurity they deserve the better.
You have a good line in insults Jake
Thank you Joan, when it comes to that twunt I certainly excel in the insults department.
I made an error. It is Kellingley Colliery. Apologies
Matt Johnson I am not Malcolm
At least the sacking has brought to a halt the plethora of articles on how do England stop Gareth Bale at a tournament some six months hence.
Just realised I have developed a stutter.
Thought it was just an obscure reference to a post punk pre-new wave band Mike.
Looks like another past-his-prime Dutchman is being dragged out to take over Chelski, at least temporarily – a man, you might say, with Hiddink talents.
I deliberately avoided 5live and indeed all news reports yesterday, even PM at 5, as I just did not want to hear about a bloke getting sacked but also pocketing an alleged £40million. I am sure that he will distribute this amongst the people at Kenningley Colliery who will also be without a job after today, but not quite the same amount of money in the bank.
I share my brother’s trepidation about Saturday as I think that the Chelsea players will be in a much better frame of mind now that Mourinho has exited stage left. Still we live in hope Ha’Way the the Lads!