We’ve been discussing quite heatedly about Jose Mourinho and Chelsea’s playing style under him. So, I thought I’ll tell you what I feel. Jose has been getting a lot of criticism from various quarters for various reasons. I’d like to analyze to see if he really deserves this amount of criticism. Remember, he’s a darling of a great percentage of Chelsea fans that his name is sung everytime we play at Stamford Bridge. A lot of his players, rivals and competitors have great respect for him and hold him in very high regard. But still he seems to have this incredible love-hate relationship with the press, fans, rivals and sometimes even with his players!

While I believe that Jose’s Chelsea played high tempo football (referred by some incorrectly as beautiful football, in my humble opinion) in 04-05 and 05-06, last season the playing style had to change due to the injuries and for the news signings. Also, I believe that only because we changed our playing style last season, we were able to give a close run-in and end up at No.2. But the big question now is the title of the post. Does he deserve the flak that he receives from a very small minority of Chelsea fans and a majority of the other club fans?

Let’s get this straight. Who hired Jose? Roman and Kenyon. Are they happy with Jose? Two titles in three years and lot of promise. They’re certainly happy and that’s why he’s still in the job. Roman has the money and power to throw Jose out any day and pick and choose from the cream of football managers. Instead, he extended Jose’s contract by another 4 years or so. Isn’t that strong enough message that the Chelsea management is happy with Jose Mourinho’s management of the team? They might have some ego clashes here and there but they are not against his way of football management, in principle.

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Chelsea hardly won anything for 100 years when compared to the biggies that we’re now competing with. What can push Chelsea straight away to the league where Man Utd, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus etc are there. Again, what can push Chelsea up? Titles or the way we play football, which takes you quicker to their league? Man Utd won the title in 1951-52. Do you know if they played great football to win the title? History remembers and records that they won the title. As simple as it sounds.

Now, think for a moment what the Chelsea management has in mind. They want to make Chelsea a top club worldwide by 2015. What would they be interested in? Titles or one-touch slick play? Titles will improve the fan base and will bring in new fans and that’s a proven fact, especially in Chelsea’s case. This statement needs no argument.

In business, when a company enters a new market, they cut the price so much that they can establish a foothold in the new market. That’s called the ‘penetration price’. All the criticism Chelsea gets, some deserved and some undeserved, are the price we pay for having penetrated the cartel of Man Utd, Liverpool (!) and Arsenal.

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When Jose came in to England, it was a completely new league for him, with respect to the competition, language, culture, quality of players, nature of football and he had a few legendary managers already in the league for more than a decade. With huge expectations on him, he delivered two titles. Of course, he had the financial backing of Roman but to win the title in any league is no joke and no amount of money can guarantee that.

I certainly believe Jose knows more about football than me. That’s why I’m blogging about Chelsea and he’s managing them. Given a free hand, he can make them play as brilliant as possible. One thing is about quality and other is about quantity. Are we heavier towards quality or quantity depends on the direction and vision provided to us by the management. It’s very clear that, at the moment, given the club ambitions and the management’s expectations, substance rules over style.

jose_jumping.gifNow, your argument could be that Man Utd does that, why can’t we? We did, as I said in 04-05 and 05-06. You have realise that most of the guys in the newsrooms are basically fans of Man Utd/Liv/Arsenal and find it hard to digest the fact that Chelsea not only are challenging them but also dislodging them. Looking at some of the match reports (not articles) in even some reputed magazines it’s quite obvious that the club allegiances influence the way things are reported. In 04-05 and 05-06, Chelsea played the best football in England and I dont think Jose was given credit for that. In some ways, unfortunately, Jose is fighting a losing battle. If Chelsea plays well, the credit goes to Roman, his money, Drogba’s form, Cech’s brilliance, Ranieri’s signings etc and when Chelsea does not play well, his face is in the centre of the dartboard.

The other side of the story is that, in Man Utd, the expectations are different. Fergie went empty handed for three seasons and he is still on the job, because Man Utd are a big club with loads of trophies in their big cabinet and they can afford to stay trophy-less for a few seasons, just like Real Madrid. Do you think Jose would retain his job if he were to win nothing at all for three seasons? I doubt if he’d be retained beyond the first trophyless season. Jose, despite all the riches available at his disposal, he does not have too much time to experiment or invest on anything that’s going to benefit after two or three seasons. Management wants results. From the marketing side, Chelsea is making huge strides in highly untapped football regions in the world such as the USA and Asia. What can help them is the titles and trophies. You might ask: Is it not possible to play high tempo football and at the same time win titles? Yes, let me repeat, that’s what we showed and proved in 04-05 and 05-06.

Compare his situation with Fabio Capello. I also know that there were a lot of reasons for him to get sacked. Under him, Real Madrid started playing in a different style that was not welcomed by a large section of the fans and the board. He won the title and he was sacked. Logic is simple. Real Madrid has won more honours than any other club in football history. They know that if Fabio isn’t there, some Claudio will be there.

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All said, I love watching Chelsea, however they play. That’s more because I enjoy wholesome football experience than those moments of brilliance or spurt of action. I enjoy the way we grind the opposition, I like the way we tactically shut the opponent out of the game, I like the way our players lurk around, waiting for the very same movements of the opponent players on the pitch to create an attack, and I love the way we win the ball. Lot of these stuff are called by many as boring football, which is unfortunate because this is football. Football is not just about those one-twos or the chip over the heads or triangle passes.

If anyone tells me that my team is playing boring football, I simply won’t agree. Who decides what is interesting and what is boring? It is subjective, certainly. It’s lies in the
eyes of the beholder. Of the bigger teams, Liverpool played the most boring form of football last season, in my eyes. None of the pool fans are going to agree with me and that’s fair enough. I’m not saying it’s wrong to comment about Chelsea’s playing style but keep in mind, that it’s simply your opinion and we all have one for ourselves. We need multiple opinions and that’s what makes life interesting. If we all had thought exactly the same way about each and everything, life must be awfully boring!

Following the extensive debates and arguments going around in BlueChampions.Com, I feel, may be, we need to define and differentiate the terms ‘fans’ and ‘supporters’ separately. Fans being the ones who support Chelsea club and enjoy watching Chelsea team while ‘supporters’ support Chelsea club as much as any other fan but don’t enjoy watching Chelsea team currently as much as the fans due to the current manager, current players, playing style or whatever.

In 04-05 and 05-06, I was getting tired of defending ourselves from non-Chelsea fans of ‘you bought the titles’ propaganda and in 06-07, ‘boring boring Chelsea’, ’200 million for two titles’ and ‘chelsea in crisis‘ had me busy. That’s fine, standing up for my team and what my team does, is after all what the fans are expected to do, right?

{democracy:59}

[tags]Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Peter Kenyon, Roman Abramovich, Premiership, Football, Man Utd, Alex Ferguson, Real Madrid, Fabio Capello[/tags]