The cold war - Roman and Mourinho stop talking
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You can't win this, Jose
Roman Abramovich heard the song, belted out with feeling, and looked on as Chelsea supporters stood up for the Special One. Deep down he was no doubt wondering precisely who was responsible for the clubÂ’s rise to power. Who, in fact, would be most sorely missed were they both to leave tomorrow? Jose Mourinho or Abramovich?
Fans may love the passion and charisma of Mourinho, the manager who delivered their first championship in 50 years and another the following season, but the correct answer is, of course, Abramovich. The man with the £10.8billion fortune. You can replace one world-class manager with another, especially when you pay them salaries of £5m, but wealthy benefactors happy to pour millions into a black hole in pursuit of shiny silver pots are few and far between.
Mourinho cannot win this power struggle, regardless of what the fans sing or what John Terry and his team-mates say about their beloved boss. Peter Kenyon may be trying desperately to maintain some sort of uneasy peace inside Stamford Bridge but the managerÂ’s days appear numbered.
By keeping him in place for the rest of the season, Abramovich can only strengthen MourinhoÂ’s hand. Imagine the uproar if Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time in their history and the boss was forced out days later. This is why whispers are starting to circulate that Abramovich may be ready to prove who is the boss at the club by sacking Mourinho before the end of the season.
The Russian no longer takes his football advice from the manager and has become convinced that his dream of copying BarcelonaÂ’s recipe for coupling success with popular appeal cannot be achieved with Mourinho at the helm. His football does not satisfy the purists and his volatile nature and unpredictability make long-term planning impossible. He has talked about almost quitting three times in less than three years.
There is evidence that MourinhoÂ’s agent, Jorge Mendes, is aware of shifting opinion inside ChelseaÂ’s corridors of power and has started groundwork in Madrid. Chelsea will sanction a move for a defender this month but it looks increasingly likely to be a stop-gap signing like Jorge Andrade, on loan until the end of the season, or BoltonÂ’s Tal Ben Haim.
The reluctance to allow Mourinho to spend millions only adds to the inkling that the board want his successor to spend any cash earmarked for transfers. Plans to move for Manchester CityÂ’s Micah Richards and ValenciaÂ’s David Villa have been shelved.
Abramovich is braced for a fans backlash if he fires Mourinho and must plan his replacement carefully. Guus Hiddink seems the obvious choice but Abramovich will not want to upset his fellow Russians by poaching the national teamÂ’s coach midway through Euro 2008 qualifying.
One partnership to placate fans would be Italy’s World Cup-winning coach Marcelo Lippi with popular former Blues boss Gianluca Vialli, who recently bought a £4m house near Stamford Bridge, as his No 2. While Lippi is not keen to work in England, Abramovich has a very persuasive chequebook. -
Fierce sia...
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russia cold war
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makes one think that Abramovich is playing "football manager" on the big scale...
maybe he's actually tiring of the whole shebang and could actually pull out, sell out his stake to whoever?
if it does, chelsea is in trouble... -
so he wants chelsea to play beautiful attractive football like barcelona, but even replacing mourinho with lippi will not accomplish that. lippi style is defensive!
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Vialli seems to be a gd choice..its great to haf Vialli back as chelsea manager again =)
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the cold was is aptly named.
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i rather see roman leave
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if he leaves chelsea is over.Originally posted by used:i rather see roman leave
so you want to see man u dominate again without much competition? -
not really but i would like to see manu win only on the last day of the season.
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Roman Abramovich cannot leave. If he does, chelsea is over.
Most people failed to realise that Roman Abramovich is the reason why Chelsea is where they are. You can say he is 100% responsible for their last 2 yrs. Mourinho is nothing, without Roman Abramovich, mourinho wouldn't be so special from Martin O'neill or Sam Allardyce...
Sadly, most people seem to think that mourinho is the one that brought them their last 2 yrs... as Abramovich is always behind the scene and mourinho is always in the news... people seem to forget about Abramovich contributions...
Chelsea can do without Mourinho, but Chelsea can't do without Abramovich. Simple as that. -
i dont think mourihno is special.
he is good but no special. he won once with porto, thats special.
he won twice with chelsea. to me, its expected considering the amount they spent.
look at chelsea now!! if they fail to win this season it will prove that mourihno is just another top manager, nothing special. -
The Chelsea fans should be more grateful to Abramovich... The guy has practically spent half a billion of his own money just to win them 2 titles... What has mourinho done? He has used the Abramovich chelsea platform in the last 2 yrs to enhance his own name at the same time collecting million $ pay cheques from Abramovich.
Has Chelsea improve as a club after spending half a billion? To be honest i don't think so... and not because i am not a chelsea fan cos if anything, mourinho has only made them the most despise club in England and Wales some say even Europe...
Borrow from PCK.
Whatever it is, the club's image has been damage by Jose Mourinhos' behaviour and Abramovich probably knows that by now.
Just too many problems with him...
The Barcelona matches...
The problem with Frank Rijkaard, Wenger, Rafael Benitez, Mark Hughes, Martin Jol...
Accusing Uefa officials and referees... and more recently accusing Reading players of attempted murder on cech... then accusing A Johnson of diving then only to apologise after AJ threaten chelsea with a law suit...
The list just go on and on... his nonsense is a liability to any club he is employ with... Real will be very silly to employ him cos winning the title is still a maybe but the problems he will cause for them will be huge... All the good work David Beckham has done for them in the marketing of the club in the last 4 yrs will go down the drain in a year with mourinho... -
Actually, I have a different view.Originally posted by dragg:i dont think mourihno is special.
he is good but no special. he won once with porto, thats special.
he won twice with chelsea. to me, its expected considering the amount they spent.
look at chelsea now!! if they fail to win this season it will prove that mourihno is just another top manager, nothing special.
I think with RA's money, and Mourinho together, then it is a winning forumla.
Read this report from Pat Nevin -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/6267481.stm
Mourinho has shown both at Everton, but more impt at OT, how he dared to make changes that changes the game around in his favour.
This season, he is forced to play Sheva, and with the unfortunate events of Cech and Terry, he is forced to perform miracles games after games.
Yes, $$ does play a major factor, but you still need a good manager to mould the team into the same direction and make them loyal to you.
This season if he fails to win the league again, 2 factors come into play.
1 -> selling of Gallas and buying of Sheva, 2-> he wasn't as prepared as he thinks in terms of injury.
And seriously, there are different classes of managers, some are meant for lower divisions, some can only raise to at best European positions, and elite who are champions makers. Mourinho, SAF, AW are clearly the leaders in this field. -
give claudio rianieri the money and he won't win anything too.
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RA is the reason why chelsea is it is today.
Can argue that both RA and M is a winning team.
But afterall, M got brought in by RA.
If RA was donald trump he would havae fired everyone one whole shot -
The only reason that mourinho could win so easily over that last 2 yrs was mainly because Arsenal and Man utd were going through a transitional period where they brought in a lot of young players to replace the older ones... and having lots of injury problems too. Whereas chelsea just went out to buy ready made players at super high prices and they didn't seem to have to much problems with injuries unlike this year.
As we can see from this year, the gap is closing... despite spending another $80 million this year in the transfer market, Chelsea are still not able to power themselves away from the rest like they did the last 2 yrs... Arsenal and Man u could still manage to stay close to them. By right, the title should be Chelseas' without a doubt... But we can see that players like Van Persie & Fabregas from the gunners and Rooney & Ronaldo of man u coming of age...
Should mourinho stays, next year should be even harder... If he runs, I will pity the next manager cos it would definitely be more difficult for him as Arsenal and Man u have improve since 2 yrs ago... and Arsenal will only get better in the next 2 years from the looks of their team play... -
actually, if Arsenal can keep its young players and find another who is as scary as Henry, be afraid of this team.. be VERY afraid!
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Roman may stay away as Chelsea crisis grows
Roman Abramovich has become so angry with Jose Mourinho that he is planning to stay away from ChelseaÂ’s clash with Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
The billionaire owner rarely misses a match, but he is not on speaking terms with his manager and is upset that fans do not properly appreciate the £400million he has spent turning Chelsea into Premiership champions.
Abramovich is furious with the way Mourinho has treated Andriy Shevchenko, who has missed the club’s last two games with a mysterious hamstring injury, and the £30m striker admitted yesterday that his benefactor would have to come to his rescue.
Shevchenko, who has struggled for form since his summer move from AC Milan, told a Russian website: "In light of recent events, I have certain misunderstandings on some issues with Jose Mourinho. I think that only the clubÂ’s top management is capable of resolving those issues."
That admission will do little to promote harmony at the training ground but, despite the rift, Chelsea sources insist relations between owner and manager are improving. Mourinho, who says he needs more defensive cover, will be appeased by the impending arrival of Bolton defender Tal Ben Haim. The deal was close to completion last night, with a fee of around £2m being discussed, and Bolton manager Sam Allardyce is already casting around for a replacement central defender.
Ben HaimÂ’s father, Emmanuel, said last night: "There are advanced negotiations between the clubs. We are hopeful that Tal will be moving to Chelsea in the next week." Though Ben Haim could be available in time for ChelseaÂ’s match at Anfield, Abramovich himself has told friends he may not be there and club officials last night admitted there was a strong possibility he would be absent.
But officials insisted he is in Russia this week on business and may not be back in time for those reasons alone. He will definitely miss a club event at the House of Commons tomorrow. It is almost unheard of forAbramovich to miss a match as crucial as the lunchtime encounter with Liverpool, but sources say that his mood has definitely changed.
In the past he would have made every effort to be there. Now, however, he may make life easier for himself by not rushing back from Russia to attend the match. -
just watch sports center and sheva wants jose out and ancelotti in
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isn't his name "Theo"?? or am I from another planet?Originally posted by the Bear:actually, if Arsenal can keep its young players and find another who is as scary as Henry, be afraid of this team.. be VERY afraid! -
true, but look at Liverpool, they spent alot too and on ready-made players.Originally posted by zocoss:The only reason that mourinho could win so easily over that last 2 yrs was mainly because Arsenal and Man utd were going through a transitional period where they brought in a lot of young players to replace the older ones... and having lots of injury problems too. Whereas chelsea just went out to buy ready made players at super high prices and they didn't seem to have to much problems with injuries unlike this year.
As we can see from this year, the gap is closing... despite spending another $80 million this year in the transfer market, Chelsea are still not able to power themselves away from the rest like they did the last 2 yrs... Arsenal and Man u could still manage to stay close to them. By right, the title should be Chelseas' without a doubt... But we can see that players like Van Persie & Fabregas from the gunners and Rooney & Ronaldo of man u coming of age...
Should mourinho stays, next year should be even harder... If he runs, I will pity the next manager cos it would definitely be more difficult for him as Arsenal and Man u have improve since 2 yrs ago... and Arsenal will only get better in the next 2 years from the looks of their team play...
I think generally, people are not giving Pool the spotlight, cause they won the European Cup. but recent cries of "I don't have enough" will raise some eye-brows...considering their main song was "you'll never walk alone"... -
They already have in Adebayor.Originally posted by the Bear:actually, if Arsenal can keep its young players and find another who is as scary as Henry, be afraid of this team.. be VERY afraid!