One Year On: What Went Wrong for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea?

Jose Mourinho’s first stint at Chelsea came in 2004 when he became an instant fan favourite thanks to the fact he helped Chelsea win their first domestic league title in 50 years. Jose Mourinho won the league title again with Chelsea the season after which gave them back-to-back league titles for the first time. He won other trophies at Chelsea during his 3-4 year reign too, but that soon came to an end when he fell out with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, and Jose then went on to manage Inter Milan and Real Madrid where he was again an instant success.

Chelsea weren’t doing much without Jose Mourinho, and when Roman Abramovich made amends and offered him another chance to be a success at Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho delivered again. He didn’t win the league title in his first season back, but he did bring silverware the next season thanks to winning the league in dominant fashion with 3 games spare. The season after that though is where things went wrong for Jose Mourinho, and he parted company with Chelsea with mutual consent after losing 9 of 16 Premier League games. What went wrong for Jose at Chelsea though? Below we’ll have a look at some of the points to consider.

He Lost the Dressing Room

Being a manager is all about having the players backing and if your players do not trust what direction you are going in with the club, then you will lose faith pretty quickly and players will not perform for you on the pitch. This is what inevitably happened to Jose Mourinho, and he ended up falling out with several players because of some of his managerial choices. One of Jose’s negative approaches to management was his poor choice to name and shame players in news conferences when things weren’t going well, and that gave players the reason to not get on with him.

Stubbornness

If you are a big football fan you will already know how stubborn Jose Mourinho is when it comes to management, and it’s either his way or the highway. Jose Mourinho caused a lot of friction among players during his second stint, and it was easy to see on the pitch when his players didn’t look interested in performing for him.

Mourinho’s Heart Wasn’t in It

Eventually you could see Jose Mourinho was under pressure in trying to get results, but the players didn’t have their hearts in it under Jose and neither did Jose himself. The whole squad fell apart because of this, and Chelsea were losing to opponents you never thought was possible, and that was eventually the end for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea.

Owners Expected Too Much

Not all of the blame can be pinned on Jose Mourinho though, and everyone in football knows that winning the Premier League the season before and then trying to replicate that in the next season is the hardest thing to do, and the pressure looked like it was building too quickly too early on in the season when Chelsea only gained 11 points in their first 12 games, putting them well out of the title race very quickly. The owners expected too much from Jose because of the instant success he had brought to Stamford Bridge over the years.

Chelsea look like different opposition this season under new manager Conte, and Jose himself looks to be doing good things with new club Manchester United, so it has ended nicely for all parties involved. Will Jose Mourinho be able to replicate his success at Chelsea with new club Manchester United? Or will he lose the dressing room again and end up with a new club quicker than expected? If you fancy a bet on the outcome, have a look at this Coral betting page to see if there are any bets worth taking advantage of.