If you have been keeping up with world football as of late, you know that Chelsea are struggling. Granted they won three games in a row, but their loss to FC Porto gave them more question marks and an even bigger headache. Fingers have been pointed some at players and some at the manager. The bottom line is that the ultimate responsibility for the Blues struggles will fall on Mourinho if they cannot turn things around. That being said, I have full confidence that Mourinho engineer a recovery for Chelsea, as it’ll pad his legacy.
During the pre-match press conference against FC Porto, Mourinho established the concept of serial champions.
There are two sorts of champions. There are those who win something, and there are lots of them. But there are the other champions who, during their career, win one, two, three, four, five, 10 or 20 titles. In this club we have 25 champions from last year, but serial champions in this squad? John Terry, Jon Mikel [Obi] and [Branislav] Ivanovic are serial champions. Almost every season they have something in the pocket. But how many other serial champions do we have?
There is one thing for certain about Mourinho’s career. He is a serial champion. It’s as if the man is allergic to losing. Everywhere he has gone, he has won championships, and titles and trophies. The Portuguese tactician sets records and creates defensive juggernauts in every country he has coached in.
So what is he missing? What does his legacy lack?
It lacks consistency, and with consistency comes adversity.
Mourinho has been in and out of clubs in his past, refusing to accept a long tenure in charge. With FC Porto, Chelsea (in his first stint), Inter, and Real Madrid, the Portuguese manager was quick to leave, especially as it seemed times were getting tougher. He left Chelsea when the beginning of their third season wasn’t going well, and he did the same at the end of the third season in charge of Real Madrid as well.
This time, it’s supposed to be different, however. He has mentioned on several occasions that he will stay as long as Abramovich allows him to, which could be 10 years.
If this holds true, Mourinho was bound to come up against adversity at some point, though I’m sure he didn’t think it would be this early on. He has even gone as far as saying:
This is the worst period in my career with the worst results in my career.
With managing Chelsea, the Portuguese manager now has a chance to build a dynasty, not just a winning team. But in order for this to occur, they’ll need to turn around their current form, drastically. Therefore, Mourinho is tasked with overcoming adversity that he hasn’t yet encountered in his managerial career.
However, this is the type of adversity that defines a managerial career. Mourinho’s past teams have been motivated by the defense, hard work and most importantly momentum. Look at Chelsea last season. They relied on momentum to be successful. Often times Chelsea would win games simply because they were supposed to. They hung in games knowing they’d find a way because that was just expected.
This campaign is quite different. There’s no more expectation that they will win because they’re lacking confidence. It’s drastically different. This means Mourinho must resort to real coaching, an overhaul in attitudes, changes in the formation and possibly the players. According to the Daily Mail, he has already guaranteed that Ruben Loftus-Cheek will play against Aston Villa.
He has already started to make changes and will continue to persevere until Chelsea start to improve. Mourinho currently has the “backing” of the players and the board, but he won’t have this for long if the results don’t improve. That being said, he’ll need to work hard, and overhaul this Chelsea squad. If he is successful it’ll further prove that he is one of the greatest managers ever to patrol the touchlines in Europe. If not, it’ll leave a large gap on the Portuguese manager’s CV.
