Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Mourinho's arrogance

So after watching Chelsea drop a 1-0 loss to Real Betis, I was struck by something that permeated the entire game: the level of arrogance exhibited by Chelsea. This coming from a team that 5 seasons ago was floundering under debt, had found some small level of success by making it to the finals of FA cups, had decent albeit old teams, played second fiddle in London behind Arsenal and Tottenham. With the arrival of Abromovich and his billions the team has been propelled into the upper stratisphere of the football world. They were a nice story a few season back pre-Morinho, but since this team has bought its way to a premiership and now has become overrun by an arrogance never seen (Manchester United teams and Arsenal teams that dominated the Premiership were never so arrogant having each other to stay grounded).

I place this blame squarely on the shoulders of that arrogant snot Mourinho. I struggle with his ability as a manager....I think that with Porto he did some amazing things, with a conhesive and talented team (Deco et al.) Winning the UEFA cup and Champions League are nothing to sneeze at. But coming to Chelsea he has demonstrated an overbearing hubris and arrogance. His stating that he wants to win 4 titles (Carling Cup, FA Cup, Premiership and Champions League) is nothing by arrogant. While we should all hope our manager, coach, GM etc has a drive to win one needs to temper that with recognition of reality. I think that he believes that he should win every time his team steps on the field, and at times I believe he manages believing that the opponent will wilt just seeing the Chelsea Blue - something both Charlton and Real Betis threw back in his face. I think this attitude has seeped down to the players. Watching the game today I saw a number of players whining Cole and Duff to name two that got yellow cards for their efforts, they seemed to whine under the guise that "Hey we are Chelsea, don't you know who we are."

Mourinho has demonstrate an ability to manage his player's egos, but only on the short term (1.5 seasons)...has he demonstrated great tactics? Not sure...Has he shown great talent evaluation? Again not sure, with Chelsea and the billions of pounds you just go out and purchase the best players on the market - Wright-Phillips, Essein etc...the other players he brought in - Ferreira and Carvalho are okay but have majoy limitations. What he has been able to do is demonstrate his arrogance and over confidence that rubs many the wrong way...I especially enjoyed his statement that they did not lose to Charlton but drew...while I enjoyed the "arrogance" of Wenger and Ferguson when they were at the height of their rivalry, Mourinho has proven that he can manage a team with unlimited resources....let see what he could do with Sunderland.....

No comments: