One of the cornerstones of Manchester United’s success over the past two decades has been stability. For all the great players and the enthralling brands of football played the main thing has been the manager. Even for people with no affinity to Man Utd it’s hard to envision a time when Fergie isn’t at the helm.
What his reign has helped to achieve is reassurance; reassurance to the players that the man in charge has the sole interests of the club at heart.
Over at Chelsea no one can say that Roman Abramovich hasn’t invested in the club. Prior to transfers this summer Abromavich has spent around £739million on Chelsea. But an interesting facet of this is in the breakdown; £69million of the total is for hiring and firing managers and coaching staff.
This is a mind-boggling amount. Imagine what managers like David Moyes or Owen Coyle might do with this money? But it just goes to show what kind of turnover of personnel there has been at Stamford Bridge since the Roman revolution.
It all began with the unsavoury dead-man-walking episode that was Claudio Ranieri. He was undermined from the beginning by the owner and speculation was torrential on his replacement.
Players such as Veron, Geremi and Mutu all came in at high costs, as much of a show of strength as to improve the team. This was true particularly in the case of Veron who had already proved at Man Utd that, despite his undoubted ability he wasn’t cut out for the Premier League. Ironically, one of the truly successful transfers made by the club: Frank Lampard for £11million was a signing done before Chelsea became Chelski.
Despite the lack of class demonstrated in the sacking of the ‘Tinker Man’ not many eyebrows were arched. After all, most managers want to ‘bring in their own’ in terms of players when they join a club, so why shouldn’t the new owner want his ‘own’ in charge?
Roman’s ‘own’ turned out to be Jose Mourinho. With an ego the size of Saturn and now a bank book to match the Special One set about building a team capable of winning the Premier League title. He brought in ‘his own’ in the shape of Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira from Porto, and he made the English pairing of Lampard and John Terry his on-field generals.
However, following back-to-back title successes Abramovich set his sights on the Champions League. And it was here that Jose faltered. His inability to better Barcelona, coupled with an ever-increasing ego saw cracks develop between manager and owner.
The imposition of Abramovich’s signings of Michael Ballack, but particularly Andrei Shevchenko form AC Milan for £30million put added pressure on the relationship. Anyone with a modicum of footballing knowledge knew that the Ukranian, nearing thirty and losing what little pace he possessed would struggle in the high-tempo world of the Premier League. However, the price tag forced Jose’s hand and he was obliged to play Shevchenko, who flopped on an industrial scale.
The dark side of Mourinho also came more into focus, from his actions in ‘ssshhing’ the Liverpool fans in the league cup final, to his naming of the Barcelona team prior to a European tie; and a general cocktail of arrogance and petulance left Chelsea being regarded as the most hated team in the country.
For Abramovich this didn’t add up. He would have been made aware of the dislike in the Premier League for Manchester United. Now Chelsea had seemingly taken over them as the best team in the country, but at the same replaced them as the most reviled.
Legend has it that Abramovich was first introduced to English football after seeing Real Madrid beat Man Utd 4-3 in a Champions League classic at Old Trafford. It’s logical to surmise then that he assumed the reason for his team’s unpopularity came down to one thing: style.
For all his personal pomp and swagger and for all the medals that have hung around his neck (barring the one he threw into the crowd at Stamford Bridge) Jose Mourinho has never been accused of advocating the beautiful game.
His Porto side gave one of the most petulant, anti-football displays in their EUFA cup final victory over Celtic in 2003. And Chelsea, for all their success was powerful, direct, almost bullying in their approach. A creative player such as Joe Cole was often benched due to his unpredictability.
In Jose’s third season Chelsea finished runners up to Utd and by the September 2007 he was gone.
Avram Grant was made manager of a ship in need of steadying. Whilst loyal players like Terry and Lampard were upset at Jose’s departure, there were rumours of revolts by other players to influence the owner into the sacking.
Grant did well in the interim. But for John Terry slipping on the penalty spot Chelsea would have been European champs that year. However, Abramovich could see greener grass on the horizon.