José Mourinho’s plan for Monday is a simple one – to spend time with his father. The international break provides him with the chance to do so and given everything that is going on at Chelsea, the 52-year-old may well be thankful for the chance to return to Lisbon and see the man who offers much needed perspective on life. After all, it is only five months since José Manuel Mourinho Félix underwent surgery relating to a brain haemorrhage, leaving his long-term health in the balance. Some things really are more important than winning football matches.
Yet given Mourinho and José Sr’s shared passion for that objective – the latter also coached in Portugal and was considered for the job of managing the national team – there is bound to be a discussion relating to the current strife at Stamford Bridge. And amid the forecast showers in the Portuguese capital, the pair may gloomily reflect on how these bad times feel very similar to the previous ones.
Most obviously there is the fact that Mourinho is again finding being Chelsea manager for a third successive season an arduous undertaking. Just like in 2007, the team are struggling for form on the pitch while behind the scenes fractured relationships add to the sense of turmoil. The key difference, of course, is that Mourinho is still in a job, yet for how long is suddenly a valid question after his proclamations following the defeat by Southampton, Chelsea’s fourth in eight league games, which leaves the champions languishing in 16th place. On and off camera, Mourinho basically challenged the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, to dismiss him, saying: “If the club sacks me they sack the best manager this club ever had.”
The suggestions are that, while furious with Chelsea’s slump, Abramovich is not planning to get rid of the Portuguese for a second time. The Russian spoke with club officials at Stamford Bridge late into Saturday night and decided that, for now, the best thing is to do nothing.
Yet given Abramovich’s trigger-happy nature, Mourinho cannot afford to relax for long and what is sure, given his “performance” at the weekend, is that for the first time since he returned to Chelsea in 2013, the manager is aware his future is in danger.
One thought is that Mourinho knows how this will all end and in that regard his final season at Real Madrid is also worth reflecting on. He went into it having signed a contract extension after winning the title and forging a unified squad. The following May, however, the title had been surrendered, the dressing room was split and he was on his way. The creeping sense of deja vu is inescapable.
“I am not afraid, I am not crying,” said Mourinho. “I have a car there waiting for me but if not I walk home. [This period] makes me realise how big I am because when you win titles life is easy. In this moment it’s not easy and I’m so happy with myself and the way I’m facing this.”
Defiant words, typically self-serving and not altogether convincing given his earlier rantings, with his further insistence that his players remain fully behind him also leading to raised eyebrows. Nemanja Matic, for instance, must have doubts about his manager having lost his place in the side and then suffering the indignity of being substituted on and off the pitch here. The performances of Branislav Ivanovic and Cesc Fàbregas also suggest they may no longer be responding to Mourinho’s orders. Both were again terrible in this fixture, with Gary Cahill and the returning John Terry among those who also continue to look like shadows of their former selves.
It was startling to see how Chelsea crumbled after they had taken the lead through Willian’s 10th-minute free-kick. It took only the gentlest of increases in pressure from Southampton for them to take control and rip through their opponents, with Steven Davis’s first-half goal and those scored by the excellent Sadio Mané and Graziano Pellè in the second half the least Ronald Koeman’s committed and creative side deserved. They were as excellent as Chelsea were wretched.
“They need to fly, to play and feel that everything is going in their favour, not to feel this pressure, panic and negativity,” replied Mourinho when asked how his players get out of their current problem. It is up to him to lift them and having unsuccessfully used the carrot and stick in recent weeks, he must find another way. Failure to do so will undoubtedly lead to that familiar feeling of being shown Stamford Bridge’s exit door.
Man of the match Sadio Mané (Southampton)