Jose Mourinho returns to Chelsea

chetannarula — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:28:09 +0000

When David Beckham broke his foot, one is sure many people across the world felt for him. He is after all one of the most revered football personalities even at this age and to make the World Cup squad one last time would have been the ideal way of bidding farewell. I wanted to write my first football post on that, for he was the player who made me support Manchester United. But there isn’t much to write except that England boss Fabio Capello now doesn’t have to make the difficult decision of leaving Beckham out from his squad. For everything said, there is no doubt that Beckham is past his sell-by date and playing at the old age home that is AC Milan only confirms that!

After Beckham left the Red Devils, only Jose Mourinho’s exuberance made me fall in love with a club again. I guess he is as good a topic to write your first football post then. Ever since 2007, when he was unceremoniously and ridiculously dumped from the managerial position at Chelsea, I have been waiting for this day. When Jose Mourinho returns competitively to Stamford Bridge tonight with Inter Milan, the Blues’ fans ought to be petrified and with reason.

It was a love affair gone sour. Mourinho to manage the big spending club’s affairs was an ideal bet. For in modern day football, you don’t just buy players. You also buy their egos and those have to be managed. Ask anyone at Real Madrid. The ‘Special One’ that he is he broke a fifty-year old duck and got them the trophies that they wanted so badly. But to say he wasn’t delivering on the Champions League promise would be unfair. Winning in Europe isn’t child’s play – even Sir Alex Ferguson has only two trophies in contrast to his umpteen league titles and he has been at Old Trafford like forever.

Why Chelsea need to be afraid is not because they trail by 2-1 or that Inter are a far better side than the one that lost to Manchester United at this stage last year. But because Mourinho knows the Blues inside out!

Let us be honest, any manager who has come in to the Bridge after him hasn’t really done anything different. Avram Grant just pushed on what Mourinho built. Luiz Felipe Scholari tried hard with his free-flowing full backs but that backfired around this time last year. Carlo Ancellotti brought with him his diamond formation with Deco at the top of it but before 2009 was over he reverted to the midfield formation of Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Malouda/Kalou and Obi Mikel/Michael Essien, and Deco nowhere to be seen. Oh by the way, that is the midfield Mourinho employed in his two years at London.

The point is simple: when you play to the tactics deployed by your opposition’s manager, haven’t you lost the battle already?

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Jose Mourinho returns to Chelsea