Football - Premier League Jan Molby: Mourinho must pick his battles with Abramovich better this time I think there was a lot of diplomacy in Jose Mourinho’s returning press conference at Chelsea. He said there was no falling out the first time between him and Roman Abramovich, but we are led to believe there were strong disagreements over player recruitment during his first spell in charge. And let’s be honest, if there was no falling out, why would Jose leave the job he says he loved so much? Abramovich has always been surrounded by a number of people who have his ear, such as Frank Arnesen, who at the time when Mourinho first managed Chelsea was heavily involved in player recruitment. Given what we know about Mourinho’s management style, I cannot see him being happy with everything about that. He is bound to say he has no problem with the owner of the club who have just re-recruited him, but he will want and expect a big say in what happens. Only last season Mourinho found himself in a hell of a battle at Real Madrid based on the premise that he felt Iker Casillas was not performing as well in goal as he should have been, and alienated almost the entire fanbase by dropping the beloved keeper. To his credit, he never normally backs away from those battles. And when he wins those battles, you’re almost guaranteed great success – prising the Liga title from Barcelona in 2012 and winning the treble with Inter Milan in 2010 being great examples since leaving Stamford Bridge the first time. At Real, his resume did not matter to some people who were not so keen on his ideas and philosophies, and instead of working around those doubts Mourinho took them head on and ultimately fell out with too many people. The only way he will succeed a second time at Chelsea is by avoiding this with perhaps a far more stubborn boss in Abramovich, one he ‘apparently’ already failed to charm previously. There are strong characters everywhere at Chelsea, too, including the dressing room. It’s not just the chairman who is tough to mess around with. This will not be as straightforward as it was back in 2004, when he walked into a club nailed on for success and ready to take over the domestic scene. The whole fabric of the Chelsea job has changed since nine years ago and it will be a completely different task for Jose, but he does have some things working in his favour. For one, I cannot think of a better boss to oversee the outgoing of Chelsea’s old guard players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech. All of these men are in the closing stages of their top-line careers but will not appreciate being told this by a manager they do not respect. Jose, of course, having worked closely with all of them before, would not have that problem. It will likely be over the course of the next two years that each of them reaches a stage where they are clearly not good enough to start week-in week-out for Chelsea anymore, and of all the coaches in the world, I’d back Mourinho to handle that very delicate transition in the best manner. And there are a number of players who have joined the Blues since Mourinho’s last term who would nonetheless, in my view, make great fits into Jose’s style. Ramires for one is a player who just gets on with his job and I think Mourinho will enjoy what he brings to the table. His Brazilian compatriot David Luiz – if he stays – is another one who I think will mesh well with Mourinho, and then you have players like Eden Hazard and Oscar who could very easily be the icing on the cake of how Mourinho sets up a team, and perhaps have better campaigns than in their first at the Bridge. My biggest fear is not how he works with the current Chelsea players, however. It is his involvement – or perhaps lack thereof – in the recruitment process going forward. As touched upon at the start, it’s hard to see Abramovich showing much compromise in this second working relationship with ‘The Happy One’. In his eyes, he has done nothing wrong every time something has gone pear-shaped at Chelsea. Mourinho says he is the same coach as before, but with newfound perspective. And that perspective needs to lead to an ability to pick his battles with the Chelsea supremos if he is to improve upon stint one. At Real Madrid, Jose forced a situation by demanding total control. If he cares about Chelsea as much as he says he does, this time around he will show more tact in the boardroom than ever before as a coach. If he has learned anything, it might be how best to deal with these issues. It’s almost certain that Abramovich will continue to do what he does, because regardless of how questionably he deals with personnel, he continues to bring the club success.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:07:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015