12/21/24
December 17, 2015
Chelsea Sacks Jose Mourinho: Only 16 games after winning the Premier League, Jose Mourinho has been fired as manager of Chelsea. The Blues lost nine of those games, including a Sunday defeat to Leicester City that prompted Mourinho to say afterwards, "One of my best qualities is to read the game for my players and I feel like my work was betrayed." Mourinho won three title in two stints leading the club and also won the FA Cup and League Cup. In August, club owner Roman Abramovich gave Mourinho a new four year, $19 million a year deal.
Man U!
When I began following the Premiership in 2005-06, Mourinho was the coolest thing about the league. There was a great promo that aired on Fox Soccer Channel in which the Special One moved in slow motion on the sideline in an impeccable suit while everyone around him was normal speed.
It's a shame his Chelsea return crashed so quickly, and weird that the team is still doing well in the Champions League as he gets the boot.
posted by rcade at 12:39 PM on December 17, 2015
- Buyout: $15M, give or take
- Not relegated: Tottenham's Pochettino (there's no change of relegation)
- Mourinho: PSG in the summer, meanwhile in a few weeks the Qataris give him a consulting gig related to WC2022
posted by billsaysthis at 12:40 PM on December 17, 2015
Third season is almost always the last for Mourinho, though usually not early 3rd.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:49 PM on December 17, 2015
If the nightmare happens and Chelsea gets relegated, is a "relegation opt-out" clause a common thing in the player contracts? Can players escape if the team gets relegated? Or is it the team that wants to let them go because they no longer have a piece of the sweet EPL cash pie?
posted by grum@work at 01:28 PM on December 17, 2015
If the nightmare happens and Chelsea gets relegated, is a "relegation opt-out" clause a common thing in the player contracts? Can players escape if the team gets relegated?
It's quite common in player contracts, although I can't imagine many Chelsea players (or their agents) really considered it a possibility when they signed. Also, despite "parachute payments" for relegated clubs, the reduction in Premier League TV revenue means that the relegated clubs have an incentive to sell off the highest waged players in the squad first.
/Derby County fan. We hold the unwanted record for being the worst team in 23 years of the Prem, on our last one year visit. I'm pretty sure the Board's strategy was to sign nobody for more than 12 months, and go for the parachute payments. Well, we had a stadium to pay off.
posted by owlhouse at 09:19 PM on December 17, 2015
I think if Special1 TV had continued, Mourinho would still be Chelsea boss. What a show!!
posted by billsaysthis at 10:16 AM on December 18, 2015
You know what's weird? Here we are the day before and no news from Stamford Bridge on who will be in charge of the team tomorrow.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:20 AM on December 18, 2015
I like to think their preseason defeat at the hands of a RBNY team compromised mostly of players from our USL squad played a part in Chelsea's downward spiral.
posted by goddam at 01:25 PM on December 18, 2015
Mourihno's three year plan:
Year One - buy the bus
Year Two - park the bus
Year Three - crash the bus
posted by JJ at 09:33 AM on December 21, 2015
+1 @goddam
posted by billsaysthis at 01:42 PM on December 21, 2015
I think it's pretty standard for yo yoclubs like Birmingham and West Brom to have a relegation clause. It benefits both parties: if the team goes down they can't afford prem wages, and the player wants neither a drop in wages or status.
It's a right old merry go round at the top, isn't it? Mourinho gone, and likely to fetch up at Manchester Utd when Van Gaal gets the boot, Pellegrino likely on his bike to be replaced by Gardiola. It's like musical chairs and none of 'em know where they will be when the music stops.
Meanwhile, here's a brilliant article on the special gone
posted by Fat Buddha at 12:31 PM on December 22, 2015
Brilliant is right. I hope Mourinho lands at Man U and Guardiola at Man City.
posted by rcade at 05:00 PM on December 22, 2015
Mourinho will destroy United if he goes there; the players are too fragile for his grind'em until they break strategy. Look at how much game time the players have missed under the much less relentless LvG.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:58 AM on December 23, 2015
If it was anyone other than Mourinho, and it was after any season other than last year (when they won it all), I'm pretty sure this would have happened a few weeks ago.
Interesting questions to be answered: