This Premier League season is now one month old, and the Football League equivalent a further two weeks advanced. It is already time, then, for managers presently on the outside and looking in at the enduring merry-go-round that prevails in their trade, to start casting their eyes towards where the next vacancies will appear.
It is the generally accepted lot of any boss these days that the once standard ‘honeymoon period’, in which time to bed in at a new club and implement fresh ideas was granted, is now prohibitively brief – if it still exists at all.
Furthermore, with a few exceptions – Arsene Wenger being the prime one – past success carries little weight when set against present woes.
Every single manager, regardless of the level at which they operate, or any constraints with which they must contend, carries the burden of responsibility to prove that they are continually bettering – or at the very least maintaining – on-pitch performances.
Jose Mourinho, an icon of Chelsea, has a recent crime sheet that details a penalty shoot-out defeat after a thrilling 2-2 European Super Cup draw against Bayern Munich, a 1-0 reverse at a Premier League ground – Everton’s Goodison Park – where a string of his predecessors typically left empty-handed and, finally, the surrendering of a lead in this week’s Champions League tie against FC Basel.
The Portuguese’s standing at both his current employers, and within the world game, will protect against any premature, and frankly daft, pressure being heaped upon his shoulders. That hasn’t prevented, though, a discernible increase in the number of newspaper pages and amount of television air time devoted towards the subject of ‘what is going wrong at Stamford Bridge’.
It has been particularly apparent in their two most recent losses, to no great surprise among many onlookers, that Chelsea are top-heavy on dexterous and enterprising attacking players, but are stymied by the absence of a proficient centre-forward. Similarly, there is a lack of midfield clout in Mourinho’s present unit.
It is entirely possible to foresee, within the next few months, the West London outfit consigning this uncomfortable spell into history as an early campaign stutter. Despite the aforementioned holes in his squad, Mourinho has at his disposal a crack bunch of footballers and, crucially, a proven record for finding a way to thrive with whatever hand he is dealt.
Nevertheless, until there is a tangible upturn in his team’s fortunes, the 50 year-old will work under the fiercest of scrutiny. He is working under the most capricious of bosses, Roman Abramovich, and has come back to his ‘home’ off the back of a most untypical Mourinho season – one which concluded a tumultuous three-year reign at Real Madrid.
Astronomical standards which have been set over the course of a decade since taking charge at Porto in 2002 dictated that, when Mourinho’s final season at the Bernabeu featured a 4-1 Champions League semi-final hammering at Borussia Dortmund, a chastening domestic cup final defeat in Real’s own stadium against city rivals Atletico and, most damagingly, an unresolved dressing room schism, the universal reaction among football cognoscenti was one of astonishment.
If there are questions being asked so early on in this latest challenge for a man whose C.V. boasts three European titles and seven domestic titles won in four different countries, what of Mourinho’s less celebrated counterparts elsewhere?
Indeed, the Chelsea manager need only look to his opposing dugout on Saturday evening to see a man whose grasp on his job is less than certain. Martin Jol has steered Fulham to 9th and 12th place finishes during his two seasons in charge at Fulham, and signed some of the more exciting talent seen at Craven Cottage in the modern era.
Still, the ebullient Dutchman’s relationship with his club’s followers has never risen above the civil. This term has begun sluggishly, and the concession of a late goal in last week’s home draw with West Bromwich Albion inspired an outpouring of boos from a discontented element of the Cottagers’ support.
Some outsiders may view that as extremely harsh on a manager who has demonstrated his capacity to keep a relatively small fish comfortably afloat in the gigantic Premier League pond. There is, however, an onus on the former Tottenham Hotspur boss to indicate that he can take his latest club into the higher echelons of the division.
It is reasonable to expect that Jol’s team, which contains Scott Parker, Bryan Ruiz, and Dimitar Berbatov among its strong cast list, can deliver an improvement on their cautious early outings.