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The footballing world is still reeling from the stunning news that Jose Mourinho has been sacked by Chelsea. Well, not all that stunning, since Jose Mourinho’s position at the helm of Chelsea has always been under threat, given the Blues’ dismal form throughout the season. The 2-1 loss away to Leicester was the nadir of Jose Mourinho’s second spell at the club, as it left Chelsea hovering precariously above the relegation zone by a single point. The defeat left the blues in 16th place and served as the catalyst for Mourinho’s downfall, as Roman Abramovic finally weilded the axe today.It’s an astonishing fall from grace for Mourinho, who led Chelsea to their fourth Premier League title just seven months ago, and was rewarded with a 4 year contract.Here are 5 reasons that led to Mourinho’s downfall at Chelsea.
#1 Handling the Eva Carneiro issue
August 8th 2015, the opening day of the Premier League season was where Jose Mourinho’s downfall began. The Portuguese manager openly criticised Eva Carneiro, a member of his medical staff after she ran onto the field to treat an injured Eden Hazard in the final few minutes of the first league match of the season aginst Swansea.
Carneiro was criticized by Mourinho and branded ‘impulsive and naive’, as Chelsea were already a man down and risked going down to nine men while Hazard received treatment with the score at 2-2. Mourinho’s unpromted outburst and his subsequent refusal to apologize could have possibly meant that his players lost respect for him.
She was eventually removed from the bench and a month later she left the club. Dr Carneiro, who was widely respected among sporting-medical circles, even went on to take legal action against the club, filing a suit for wrongful termination.
#2 Blaming Referees
Mourinho isn’t new to blaming referees, but seemed to amplify his complaints against the referees, carrying over last season’s ‘campaign’ against Chelsea into this one as well. The ‘Special One’ constantly questioned refereeing decisions in his post match press conferences, perhaps with a view to deflecting attention from his underperforming players.
Mourinho even went on to say that the officials were afraid of taking decisions in favour of Chelsea after Chelsea’s 3-1 loss to Southampton. Another loss to West Ham later had Mourinho fuming, as detailed by referee Jon Moss in his match report, saying, “ Mr Mourinho ... was waiting for us clearly agitated and began aggressively asking about first half decisions.”
“Mr Mourinho asked me about a tackle, an offside and a goal line clearance. I gave him brief answers to his questions. Later, I asked him to leave the dressing room area. He refused. I asked him again. After he refused again I asked Mr Sutton, the West Ham Security manager to escort him from the room.”
“At this Mr Mourinho became very aggressive and animated. He shouted that ‘you f***ing referees are weak ... (Arsene) Wenger is right about you ... you are f***ing weak’.”
Mourinho’s previously impervious ego now seemed to be fragile and crumbling around his antics, perhaps fuelling his players disdain.
#3 Alienating the press
Despite his protestations to the contrary, Mourinho has long been admired by members of England’s Fleet street. Journalist’s have loved Mourinho’s constant supply of headline worthy quotes and antics. However, Mourinho seemed particularly sensitive to criticism this year, launching into a tireade directed at television pundits.
“Some of the pundits are really brave. To criticise someone with my history, you need to be brave, as there is a risk someone like myself will say, “Shut up. You've won nothing in your life.” But I won't do that. I just work and hope that the good results are coming.”
“I don't feel the kind of pressure of before. Because now I have a history, a big history. I really don't accept that people can doubt my ability just because I am having some bad results.”
In his first spell at Chelsea, Mourinho was famed for tackling tough questions with ease and humour. However his demeanour with the press changed a lot this season, culminating in the strangest ‘I have nothing to say’ post-match press conference after the defeat to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
#4 Constantly getting in trouble with the FA
Mourinho was handed a stadium ban after his rant against referees after the 3-1 defeat to Southampton. Mourinho decided to appeal against one of the misconduct charges, which he lost. Mourinho was later sent off when Chelsea lost 2-1 to West Ham, receiving another stadium ban and a hefty fine. However, he decided not to appeal against the stadium ban he was handed after the West Ham match.
"The match is tomorrow, I know the result of the appeal already, so I decide to give up," he said. "I think it's stupid to fight a fight you know you will already lose. This stadium ban is connected to words, to complaints. I can imagine that in the future we are going to have lots of managers with stadium because the stadium bans should be related to something really serious.”
Mourinho also pointedly kept referencing Arsene Wenger’s supposedly ‘beneficial’ treatment by the FA, branding a UEFA referee ‘weak and naive’, the same phrase used by Wenger that escaped punishment. Mourinho’s constant barbs aimed at Wenger were symptomatic of a man under huge pressure, despite having delivered success, in sharp contrast with Wenger whose position remains steady despite the Gunner’s fallow years.
#5 Losing the dressing room
Rumours of dressing room unrest have been a constant in Mourinho’s managerial career. However, the Special One had run-ins with several of his players, most notably with Eden Hazard. With stars such as John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas all going through a bad spell of form, Mourinho was left at his wit’s end trying to motivate the spine of his team.
The Portuguese manager tried multiple tactics to get the dressing room to respond to him, but none worked. He deflected attention away, criticised them in private, and later in public, culminating in his final post-match press conference after the 2-1 defeat to Leicester where he voiced his ‘betrayal’ by the Chelsea players.
“I feel my work is betrayed,” he said. “I worked four days in training for this match. I identified four movements where Leicester score a lot of their goals and in two of the four situations, I identified they scored their goals. I went through it all with the players, you can ask them.”
This act of completely throwing his players under the bus seems to have been the final nail in Mourinho’s coffin, as his sacking was confirmed days later.
