THE KINGMAKER NEEDS TO GO TO WORK

Ed Woodward sharing a joke with Mourinho

Ed Woodward is the reason behind Man United current collapse, but there’s a feeling that this could have been avoided. If anything, Jose Mourinho should have learned from what happened at his former team and Antonio Conte.

There is a feeling that every interview that Jose has been involved in during preseason had a feeling of a man who had given up. This situation has happened before to different managers. Jurgen Klopp had this problem at Liverpool but he never complained. He never blamed anyone or made players feel like they are not good enough. He worked with the players he had and added players in positions that needed strengthening. Antonio Conte won the Premier League with Chelsea on his first season but because of lack of investment the next season, he started complaining and that made his players start believing that they are not good enough. Chelsea defence never got off to a good start; it never got off at all.  This was a good manager who allowed investments off other teams like Man City, Liverpool and Man United made him feel like he's not getting assistance from the team management, truth be told, he wasn’t getting the help.
 

Conte and Pogba

Conte background is that of a manager who knows how to set-up an average team to be good. From the time he started coaching in 2006, he has purchased 69 players at £8 951 850 per player, compared to Pep Guardiola who has signed 55 players at £19 991 852 per player and Jose Mourinho's 100 players signed went for £13 783 448. This shows that Conte was never a manager who goes and spends money on top names, but he knew how to make average to good players become superstars. He took an ageing Italian national team with no hope of making it through the group, let alone, to compete with against the defending Euro champions, Spain. He not only took them to the quarterfinals, but they beat Spain along the way.

From the time he was at Juventus, Conte never felt like he was given the players he wanted but he worked with what he got, he won Serie A several times but failed to be successful in Champions League. This, he said later, was down to lack of improvements in his squad. When he got to Chelsea, he inherited a team that was thought to be misfits after the “Special One” failed to defend the league title with the same players he won with 3 months earlier. Antonio performed miracles. His defending of the league became nothing more than a battle between him and team management, he distancing himself from any transfers being made by the team, this led to speculations players’ unhappiness and he eventually got fired.

Life in Madrid

Getting back to Jose, he also came from a background of not going on a spending spree, he has been able to create players and build them into superstars. But if you get to join teams like Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United, it’s expected that you spend the money available. With Chinese and Arab money, the market has changed in that an average player will around 60-90 million. Jose has fell into this trap because of the teams he has coached and the possibilities of the amount that might be made available. For a team like United, if you come 2^nd in the league, smart money would be on you going on a spending spree the next season to try to close 19 points gap.

The unsung hero

But, as it is, no investments were done and Jose decided to go at it the wrong way, imagine Pochettino at Tottenham, he didn’t do business this past transfer window but he never gave his players a feeling of not being good enough. He got to work and the season looks good. Even if he’s been fighting with his bosses, we are unable to sense that because the players are being told to prove to everyone that, lack of new signing is not the end and the fact that they still have all their players is more like signing new players in itself.

Yes Mourinho didn’t get the players he wanted, yes he had injuries to deal with, but modern football asks for one to come up with solutions. We’ve seen it before, he has done it before. He is The Kingmaker, he made so many kings, this is an opportunity to do it again. This guy was known as the special one for a long time, and this was because he was outplaying the best managers in the world. Where Man United is, this situation asks for Mourinho to get to work and make things happen, to remind us why he called himself “the Special One”. And remembering that his record has shown that his 3^rd season always ends with him getting fired, the way this season has started, he’s not doing himself any favours.

The Fallen Angel

“Athletes today are scared to make Muhammad Ali Statements” Nas, My Generation

It’s been a while since I wrote on this blog. I felt it was only right to write again seeing that I do get time these days to enjoy my 2^nd love. Enough about me let’s get into the business of The Beautiful Game and defence of this great man who is either being misunderstood or just been thrown into the deep end to tarnish his reputation. In the current era, there has never been a manager who has been dominant in world football than this man. He has done a lot for the sport especially in the UK even though he is an outcast. He’s got fewer friends.

I am the Greatest!

Ali knocked heavyweight champion out

Muhammad Ali called himself the greatest. In all of boxing and all the history of boxing, Ali had the audacity to stand on a podium and call himself the greatest. He was the only one who believed that he could beat World Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in 1964. The difference between Ali and Liston was that Ali convinced himself he was the best, and Liston’s fans convinced him he was the best. In the end, someone who truly believed he was the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time fulfilled his own destiny and became the World Champion.

When Ali first came out, he disrupted the whole world with his cockiness and who could forget his famous quote before fighting George Foreman, “I have wrestled with an alligator. I done tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail! That’s bad! Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick! I’m so mean I make medicine sick! Bad, bad, fast. Last night I cut the lights out in my bedroom, hit the switch, was in the bed before the room was dark, fast. And you George Foreman, all you chumps are gonna bow when I whup him, all of ya! I know you got ’em, I know you got ’em picked, but the man is in trouble. I’m gonna show you how great I am!” Because of his personality and the fact that he believed in his own abilities, he will be known forever in the history of boxing as “The Greatest”.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho

I’m the Special One

When Jose Mourinho joined Chelsea, he called himself the special one in a league that had great managers and he won the league in his first season.

Fast forward, 2015/16 season, his second stint at Chealsea after winning league titles in Italy and Spain and winning another title in England, they’ve only won 3 time in 11 league matches, and now “The Special One” is being taunted by the media and football supporters alike. Everyone has their own opinion of the man and his team. Speculations are coming fast and furious “Chelsea star said Mourinho has lost the dressing room”, “If he loses the next game, his out”, “Chelsea are already looking for Mourinho replacement”, whatever the story, however true these stories might be Mourinho has been the best manager in the current era.

It has been said that Mourinho’s needs to know when to shut up, or how not to be controversial. From the time he took his CL winning Porto team to face Sir Alex Ferguson Man United at Old Trafford, Mourinho ran the half the pitch to celebrate with his players, which was seen as “ungentlemanly” by the English media and the so called greats or gentlemen of the English game. Mourinho is unconventional, he’s not like other manager, he’s a rebel, he creates rules and challenge authority. Some rules are there to be challenged, not broken and he’s the man to do that. He was once removed from the bench while at Real Madrid, instead of doing what all the other managers would do which was to go and sit up there, he decided to ask one of the season ticket holders sitting behind the team bench to let him use his sit to be closer to his bench so that he can communicate with them, that was Jose doing what he does best, being unconventional.

Luis van Gaal Barcelona team

Mourinho, the fallen angel, was part of the Barcelona team that invented and reshaped modern football in the mid-90s. Graduates from that era include managers such as Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich), Luis Enrique (Barcelona), Julen Lopetegui (FC Porto), Laurent Blanc (PSG), Frank De Boer (Ajax), Phillip Cocu (PSV), Luis van Gaal (Man United) and Roland Koeman (Southampton). In that line up of these 8 apostles from the Barca way, Mourinho stands alone. He did not draw the same lessons as every one of them in that his style is the exact opposite to that of Barcelona.  

Barcelona style has always been to hold on to possession and all the managers mentioned above rely on this style, only Mourinho who doesn’t believe that possession win you matches. His anti-Barcelona sterns have made him into a unique manager, he’s personality has always been unique. Now he’s been asked to change and be something that he is not because “It might save his job and his teams ‘season”, be like other managers, shut up and get on with it.  Mourinho always lived by the sword; he made his career by taking on the best, coming up with methods, if not unusual ones, to be the best, if he dies, it’s only fair he dies by the same sword. He’s a big manager, he speaks his mind, he knows he’s “The Special One”. He is still the best coach for Chelsea despite media trying to push him out of English Football. He speaks out against unfairness of officials; he will forever be that type of coach.

I wouldn't sack him if I was Chelsea. I think he's a fantastic manager, his record shows that.

Jamie Carragher on Jose Mourinho

In the middle of all the confusion and speculations taking place at The Bridge, the supporters have put their full support behind the manager. In football, when something goes wrong, the known solution has been to fire the manager. Last season Dortmund was in the same kind of situation with Jurgen Klopp at the helm but the German team refused to fire their coach and allowed him to take them out of that hole. Chelsea seem to be doing the same thing after giving the manager contract extension before the season started. Manuel Pelligrini, Carlo Ancelotti believe that Jose is the only manager to take Chelsea out of this bad moment. As much as the team is losing, at the moment it seems like there is no manager out there who can turn the fortunes of the team around than the man at the helm. You almost feel like the fact that arguably the best manager in the world is going through this spell in his career has brought managers to come out supporting him. They the ones who understand there is nothing fun about winning the league convincingly and 3 months the line one finds himself unemployed. 

Because of where he finds himself, Mourinho is expected to change who he is and to be humble, he's brave enough to be who he has always been and in the eyes of many, its called arrogance. Jose is not shy to stand his ground and fight on, he is fighting not only for the supporters but also for the players, the same players that media are always quoting as saying the manager is closer to the exit. Chelsea have been known to fire easily and if they stick with Mourinho, they would have given a clear indication that they want continuity and they still believe in the manager, after all, he is Mr Chelsea, "ONE OF US".