Why is Mourinho’s return to Chelsea such a bad thing?

The news of José Mourinho’s return to Chelsea and English football has been met with huge joy and relief by the majority of Chelsea supporters and with a wry smile from opposition fans who actually, deep down inside, enjoy his media appearances. Yet I still read and hear on TV huge negativity surrounding his latest move. Certain fans just don’t like the guy, his abrasive style, huge self confidence and major success doesn’t sit easy with them, which is quite understandable in some respects as it’s almost human nature to dislike those better off than ourselves, yet it doesn’t explain why they think it’s a “bad move” for José to return. These supporters, along with some Chelsea fans have this Apocalypse Now-esque cliché “Never go back” working over-time on Twitter and fan sites. My question is “why?” Why should Chelsea and Mourinho “never go back”? The main reason emphasised by these people is the whole Kenny Dalglish debacle at Liverpool. Mourinho’s homecoming to Chelsea is nothing like Dalglish’s return to Liverpoo. Not only was Dalglish out of a top flight management role for too long, he was returning to a team very much on the slide, nothing better than a top 6 or 7 side, a team that needed huge investment all over the field and not likely to crack the top 4 for a good few seasons. Mourinho is returning to a relatively competitive side, with some top international players, investment in key areas to suit a Mourinho set up should have Chelsea putting pressure on the teams at the very top of the Premier League and in Europe once again.

You then have Johann Cruyff saying with all the credibility of Mystic Meg that “José will flop at Chelsea.” Why? Why will he flop at Chelsea? Well, Johann says Mourinho is such a “negative force” that this style and methods of management “don’t work” and predicts that Mourinho “will never win a prize” again. Well quite obviously Mr Cruyff, Mourinho’s methods and style of management do work. You only have to look at his honours list to see that, major title after major title. Players at Porto, Chelsea and Inter putting everything they had into playing José’s way and reaping the rewards for it. Cruyff has history with Mourinho, publicly having spats with him before, so maybe he should have said “I hope Mourinho will never win a prize again.”

I’m not naive enough to believe that Mourinho will be at the helm of a Chelsea ‘dynasty’ (as he alluded to in his Chelsea TV interview). I think he is quite a selfish, shrewd and scheming individual who’s always got one eye on his next destination. In his interview with Chelsea TV he even managed to mention his passion for Inter! When you get back into bed with an ex lover all she wants to hear is that she’s the only one! And it was always about her. Not,

“Yeah, I love you, you’re the only one for me, oh and I love some bird from Milan, I’m really Inter her too…”

These negative football observers say quite confidently “it’ll all end in tears”, which isn’t exactly a Nostradamus vision. Nor does it mean this reunion of Mourinho and Chelsea is actually a bad move. It most probably will end in tears, as many managerial appointments do in football today and in particularly at SW6, but this doesn’t mean it’s a bad move, and that it isn’t right in the here and now. Mourinho is the best manager available to Chelsea at the moment, these are arguably the best proven candidates

Guardiola has a new job – reportedly and understandably scared off by the hottest of hot seats.

Ancellotti wouldn’t be likely to return after a very harsh sacking, currently at PSG who make Chelsea look like paupers and rumour has it he’s heading to Real anyway.

Hiddink has never seemed that keen to take the Chelsea job full time the job becoming regularly available since his caretaker role.

Capello has a handsomely paid job with Russia and they aren’t looking too shabby at the top of their World Cup Qualifying group.

Chelsea may have recently won the Champions League but I don’t think it means that much in the long term if you can’t qualify for the Champions League season after season, Notts Forest, Ajax, Marseille and now even Liverpool are fast fading from their position of one time European powerhouses. Mourinho will get Chelsea competitive once again, he won’t settle for a skin of your teeth top 4 finish like this year, he’ll no doubt win some trophies along the way, and then it will probably end in tears after 3, 4 or 5 years (very ambitious!) whether it’s Roman’s twitchy trigger finger or José’s roving eye I wouldn’t like to forecast, but I very much think this move is the best for Chelsea and José’s slightly bruised ego.