The billionaire Russian set aside his pride and
footballing vision to bring his most successful
coach back; now football's most uncompromising
winner must sacrifice
COMMENT By Liam Twomey Follow on
Two years into his return to Stamford Bridge as
the self-proclaimed ‘Happy One’, Jose Mourinho’s
serenity has been remarkable.
Publicly there have been the inevitable headlines,
explosive barbs at rival managers and talk of
media “campaigns”, but privately Chelsea’s most
successful ever manager no longer gives the
impression of a man capable of starting a fight in
an empty room.
Instead, management and ownership are pulling in
the same direction. Mourinho’s working
relationship with Roman Abramovich’s most
trusted lieutenants – technical director Michael
Emenalo and de facto chief executive Marina
Granovskaia – has been low-key but spectacularly
productive, restoring Chelsea to the pinnacle of
English football while complying with Uefa’s
Financial Fair Play rules.
But the alliances that have underpinned the
Stamford Bridge resurgence were always going to
be tested sooner or later, and that moment has
arrived. Mourinho did not want to lose Petr Cech to
anyone, much less a Premier League rival.
Abramovich’s desire to do right by Chelsea’s
greatest ever goalkeeper has seen his manager
overruled on both counts.
The question now is how Mourinho reacts. He has
in recent weeks spoken like a man at peace with
his powerlessness when it comes to Cech, less
than satisfied but respectful of Abramovich’s final
judgement. “The owner is the owner,” he told
reporters earlier this month. “He is the person with
the perspective I admire a lot, respect a lot… I will
have to accept any decision that the owner has.”
Such magnanimity is a far cry from Mourinho’s
witty yet bullish take on the division of labour with
Abramovich in March 2005, as he powered
towards his first Premier League title at Stamford
Bridge. “If he helped me out in training we would
be bottom of the league - and if I had to work in
his world of big business we would be bankrupt,”
he insisted.
History tells us that when Mourinho is forced to
acquiesce on matters of power, personnel or both,
things tend to end badly.
Andriy Shevchenko’s arrival and the appointments
of Frank Arnesen and Avram Grant prompted civil
war in his first spell at Chelsea, while every bridge
to president Florentino Perez was ultimately
burned by an all-consuming public struggle with
entrenched senior players at Real Madrid.
POWER STRUGGLE | Mourinho and Abramovich's
have previously clashed over player and staff
recruitment
Mourinho himself appeared scarred by his
experience in the Spanish capital and has so far
delivered on his pledge to work within the existing
power structure at Chelsea – but in reality it is
Abramovich who has sacrificed most.
Billionaires do not generally become so without a
stubborn courage in their own convictions.
Bringing back Mourinho in the summer of 2013 at
vast expense was a remarkable climbdown for
Abramovich, having paid £10.5 million (€15m) just
to see the back of the brash Portuguese maestro
six years earlier.
He then sanctioned the sales of Juan Mata and
David Luiz, reportedly two of his personal
favourites and the emerging leaders of the new
Chelsea, because they did not fit his manager’s
vision. Mourinho was also permitted to abandon
the Fernando Torres vanity project, even if plain
logic dictated that decision every bit as much as
the manager.
In terms of signings, Mourinho has for the second
time been given the freedom to build a Chelsea
team to his unique specifications, if not quite a
squad. John Terry’s position as defensive leader
was restored at his insistence and Didier Drogba
was brought back for one last hurrah. This
summer his fingerprints are all over the
controversial decision to give Radamel Falcao
another Premier League chance when most other
top clubs would run a mile.
On the pitch, Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa lend
the Blues a far more powerful, bruising and at
times divisive profile than was originally intended
for the next great side to grace Stamford Bridge,
while a pragmatic, win-at-all-costs philosophy is
again paramount.
Now it is Mourinho who is being asked to sacrifice.
Seeing Cech in Arsenal colours next season will be
an understandable source of frustration; a world-
class goalkeeper should make the Gunners
considerably better and Arsene Wenger is probably
one of the last managers in the world he would like
to help.
But the decision is not his to make. Nor is it a
valid pretext for conflict or excuse for failure next
season; Mourinho was happy enough to sell Mata,
Chelsea’s best player two years running, to
Manchester United, and unless misfortune befalls
Thibaut Courtois, losing Cech will not make
Chelsea any worse.
Mourinho’s job is to keep winning. As yet there is
little to suggest he will fail, or that his relationship
with Abramovich will disintegrate so spectacularly
again. Six chaotic years and seven different
coaches taught the Russian the hard way that he
cannot micromanage Chelsea to global domination,
and those who now run the club on his behalf are
motivated by a desire for collective success rather
than personal advancement.
With this structure, the unlikely reunion of
football’s most successful short-term manager and
Europe’s most notorious short-term club will
endure. Mourinho is the first Abramovich era
Chelsea boss to see a third season since
Mourinho; how he responds to Cech’s sale will go
a long way to deciding whether, for the first time in
his own illustrious career, he gets a fourth
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