Chelsea has been a dumpster fire this season but somehow, Jose Mourinho has kept his job as their manager
Jose Mourinho is lucky to still have his job at Chelsea. The embattled manager has piloted the defending Premier League champions to a pitiful 14th place showing through 15 matches and has kept his club in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. At this point in time, the fact that he’s still Chelsea’s manager is more surprising than his firing would be.
The real question now is what would it actually take for Chelsesa owner Roman Abramovich to pull the trigger and fire Mourinho. Many, myself included, thought that he would have severed ties with his manager long ago if the season had gotten off to this poor of a start. Instead, he’s been rather patient, and eerily silent, on the subject of his controversial manager.
Things are already really bad at Chelsea and on one would have batted an eye if Mourinho was fired. Yet, he’s still there on the job. Can Abramovich really be waiting for more bad things to happen to the club to make a change?
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I actually think Abramovich has already made his decision. He’s too smart a man to still be wondering whether or not Mourinho is the right man for the job. He can see the dumpster fire that is his club better than any fan. It stares him in the face on a daily basis.
The reason he hasn’t axed Mourinho as of yet, is strictly a business decision. The Russian owner is smart enough to know that he shouldn’t hurry to make a managerial change unless there is a better alternative out there. Clearly, he’s surveyed the list of managers available to him at the current time and decided that it’s best to just wait for better options to come available.
I don’t think we can really blame him. There isn’t anyone out there right now that represents a clear upgrade to Mourinho. Some will claim that Carlo Ancelotti would be an upgrade and that’s certainly possible, but it’s far from a certainty. I wonder if the former Real Madrid man still has enough passion for the game to make the overhaul required at Stamford Bridge.
Instead, Abramovich can use the cover of Mourinho’s current employment to sound out potential candidates.. It’s a lot easier to speak to say, Pep Guardiola, in secret while Mourinho is still on the job. Once he does pull the trigger on firing “the Special One” the media will be all over any rumored candidates for the Chelsea gig. There’s enough scrutiny on potential candidates with Mourinho on the job. It’d be unbearable after firing him.
Roman Abramovich didn’t make all of his money by being stupid or indecisive. Those aren’t the reasons he hasn’t made a managerial change at Chelsea either. He’s simply waiting for the right time to make the change and secure the ideal candidate as Mourinho’s replacement.