The various stages of José Mourinho's association with Chelsea can be categorised according to the moniker pinned to him at the time. He had arrived at Stamford Bridge a self-styled Special One before rather unlikely dalliances with Mellow Mourinho and, on his return after an absence of six years, The Happy One. The most successful coach in the club's history departed last December as The Individual, a three-times Premier League winner infuriated by a non-responsive senior squad whose title defence had degenerated into the early throes of a relegation struggle. For the first time in a 16-year managerial career, he had appeared at a loss.
It was the technical director, Michael Emenalo, who had pointedly refused to name the outgoing manager in that infamous interview hurriedly conducted with the club’s in-house television channel which pinpointed the “palpable discord” which had forced the owner’s hand. Mourinho had been sacked a few hours earlier after a 10-minute meeting with the chairman, Bruce Buck, and the director Eugene Tenenbaum. He had been finishing his Christmas lunch at the staff’s party when Buck’s text message dropped requesting talks. The club felt they had been patient but the loss at Leicester and the manager’s post-match suggestion he had been “betrayed” by his players had signalled the end. Panic had set in.
In truth, the manner in which Chelsea unravelled over the final five months of his stewardship still baffles, all the talk of poor summer preparations and a lack of ambition in the transfer market offering an inadequate explanation for a prolonged period of implosion. The manager’s livid reaction to Dr Eva Carneiro’s on-pitch treatment of Eden Hazard on the opening weekend, and the deterioration of key players’ form, had created the perfect storm. Most supporters felt let down less by Roman Abramovich, even if he had apparently been persuaded against making a change a few days earlier, and more by the first team, who duly thrashed Sunderland within 48 hours of Mourinho’s sacking. The atmosphere was poisonous that Saturday. Some of that squad have not recovered their reputations.
It should be less venomous before kick-off on Sunday when Mourinho brings his Manchester United side to south-west London: the chants going up before kick-off are more likely to revolve around Matthew Harding on the 20th anniversary of his death, even if the Portuguese will surely acknowledge any applause flung his way with a hint of a wave from the visitors' dugout. "A lot of fans, myself included, were really sorry that he went but there was so much toxicity around the club at that time," said David Chidgey, chairman of the Chelsea Supporters' Trust but speaking in a personal capacity. "A lot of that was his fault but the reaction of the players left a lot to be desired. He is one of the greatest managers we've ever had, if not the greatest. That's how I remember him. He would bend the boundaries, but I loved the mentality he brought to Chelsea. He galvanised a team into a winning machine and if you can't celebrate that … well, then the game's gone.
“If this was after the first time he’d left, seeing him come back with a rival Premier League club would have left me very sour and bitter. But he’s been away, come back and gone away again. Maybe it was a natural conclusion to his time with us, and I couldn’t care less who he went to next. We can have warm feelings about him for what he achieved while he was here, and it would be churlish not to afford him some civility and hospitality before the game. But he will be sitting in the opposition dugout on Sunday. Once the whistle sounds, he is The Enemy.” Opposition fans, in truth, have always afforded him that sobriquet.
Emenalo, anxious not to linger on the perceived cult of Mourinho, had hoped to focus minds more on the club’s grave predicament a point above the bottom three in his piece to camera that Thursday evening in December. Mentioning or even offering sympathy for the departed was deemed unwise. He did not name Abramovich or any of the hierarchy, either, though he may never be forgiven by the majority of the supporter-base for the rather cold, dispassionate nature of that public address. “I thought it was pathetic, most people did,” said Chidgey. “I have my sympathies for Emenalo as the sacrificial lamb fronting up the issue, but he could have chosen his words better. All that ‘The Individual’ stuff was ridiculous.”
Yet, while most will share those sentiments, there are some who had not railed quite so violently at the decision to part company with the Portuguese. Plenty were tired of Mourinho’s raging at the world, the constant conspiracy theories and blame games, and were dismayed by his regular attacks on the atmosphere generated by the home support at Stamford Bridge – he described it as “like playing in an empty stadium” and praised the din whipped up by Liverpool and Crystal Palace fans in comparison – and, most notably, his treatment of Carneiro. Chelsea would support Mourinho in that employment dispute until an out-of-court settlement was finally reached in the summer.
By then, Mourinho had been confirmed as United’s manager. “I was embarrassed by the way Dr Carneiro was treated,” said David Johnstone, editor of the Chelsea fanzine CFCUK. “I’ll always be grateful for what José Mourinho did for Chelsea but I’m one of the fans who was glad to be shot of him. When he came back, I told anyone who would listen it would end in tears, and he wasn’t the same José second time round.”
The criticism of the fans, presumably designed to spur Stamford Bridge into life, never sat easily. “I was down at Cobham once and he walked past saying: ‘Next season we are going to play 38 away because the atmosphere is better,’” said Johnstone. “He told me loads of times I had to get the supporters going [via the role with the fanzine]. I should have said to him: ‘If you are worried about the atmosphere, get down the Matthew Harding end and start the songs yourself.’ At that time the safety people in the ground were going through a period of throwing people out if they stood, so why should you pay £750 and then risk having your season ticket taken away? It’s not right for a multimillionaire to behave like that, but he kept having a go.
“Then there was his son slagging off the supporters on Instagram [José Mario, after witnessing Cesc Fàbregas being booed by some Chelsea fans in March 2015, had posted: “I completely agree with the chant ‘Mourinho’s right, you’re fans are s****’ Our fans are a disgrace!!!!”]. Where does he get that from? From his dad at the breakfast table. The first time he was here he said Chelsea fans would rather go to the opera. The fact is, unfortunately, the demographic of football probably has changed over the last few years. But don’t coat off the people who do their best and are forking out to come to games. It’s not our fault.”
Mourinho, of course, has been back once before. He brought Internazionale to Stamford Bridge for a Champions League knockout tie against Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea in 2010, and prevailed courtesy of Samuel Eto’o’s late goal. “When he came back with Inter and was hugging all the players before the match started … he’d won that game before it had even kicked off,” said Johnstone. “Everyone was still in awe of him. Perhaps quite rightly.”
This time it will be different. “We don’t need to be too reverential, and I suspect it will actually be Matthew Harding’s name that will be sung long and loud,” said Tim Rolls, a former chairman of the Trust and fan of 40 years. “Most people were desperate for him to turn it around last season but, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen. The doctor incident left a sour taste and he clearly fell out with some of the key players. But we didn’t exactly ‘bounce back’ under Guus Hiddink after José had gone, so whatever was wrong wasn’t something easily solved. Perhaps we had overachieved the previous season in winning the title. Maybe it had just run its natural course and needed a change.
“It will be strange seeing him at the Bridge in charge of another Premier League team, but football moves on. He won three league titles for Chelsea and various cups, and that means there’s a huge amount of respect for him and always will be. I’d expect people to clap him before the game. But we have a new manager in Antonio Conte who demands our support. Once the game has started I’d imagine Mourinho will largely go ignored.”
His legacy remains the challenge he mounted, successfully, to break up the duopoly imposed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger on the Premier League during his first spell under Abramovich. The Portuguese’s second stint yielded the club’s only league title in six years. Those achievements will never be forgotten. But, once the pre-match platitudes have passed on Sunday, Chelsea must prove they are moving on.
(Guardian service)
