Mourinho's return is a mistake

‘Never go back’ they say. But Jose Mourinho has done just that and is once again at the helm of Stamford Bridge as manager of Chelsea.

Mourinho’s time at Real Madrid has been stressful for the mere spectator. The political circus and civil feuds which have surrounded recent times at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium have taken their toll on him.

His hair is shorter and greyed, his skin sags slightly from his tired face. The Mourinho at his inaugural Chelsea press conference this time around will be a little less vibrant than the ‘special one’ who memorably entered the English game back in 2004.

Back then he was hungry to gain the reputation as the greatest manager in the world. He was on the breadth of the wave of having taken a Portuguese club team to Champions League victory – an achievement none had predicted.

The young, charismatic Mourinho had a clean history with nothing on his record but victory. Now he re-enters after, perhaps, his CV’s only blotch; his failure at one of the biggest clubs in the entire world.

Mourinho was tasked with toppling the Spanish domestic dominance of Barcelona, somewhat of his arch-nemesis, and also putting Madrid back in the reckoning for European honours, a competition with which they have such great history but have struggled with in modern times.

But Mourinho could not handle the pressure in Madrid. He could not survive under the watchful eye of President Florentino Pérez who loomed over him like the burden of a mountain of debt. And for the first time in his career his man-management failed to control the dressing room. In the likes of Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos he encountered players with egos as big as his own who revolted against his regime.

Mourinho’s return is almost an attempt to pick up where he left off and forget the time in between his reigns. By returning to Chelsea, Mourinho is trying to return to 2007, or at least 2010 before he joined Madrid, when he was a young man who had never failed.

Admittedly Chelsea have not challenged for the title in the last two seasons, but they have won the Champions League, a trophy with which they have had such an intimate relationship yet which was so elusive to them. If Mourinho could swoop in and snatch this holy-grail for Chelsea then I would suggest his appointment would be justified.

But Roberto Di Matteo has already won the Champions League with Chelsea leaving them with an identity crisis. Chelsea no longer need to prove they can win the major trophies. They are seeking longevity, style and purity – Mourinho has many effective qualities but he does not possess any of these.

Roman Abramovich and his advisory board ditched Mourinho back in 2007 and after several heirs failed to emulate Mourinho’s success, the Russian tycoon finally tried to reinvent Chelsea under Andre Villas-Boas. Young players were signed under a young manager who wanted to win with style.

But unsurprisingly Abramovich became impatient waiting for the long-term project to come to fruition and the stop-gap coaches ever since Villas-Boas was dismissed have merely built a long, winding road back to Mourinho.

Mourinho’s return to Chelsea has the feel of an old, successful TV show returning to air years later. The cast all look a little older and have all experienced highs, lows and misdemeanours since the original production, making the purity of what was originally created somewhat tainted. Additionally, the expectation created by the popularity of the original will be suffocating.

It was key that Mourinho signed up to the second coming, he’ll probably bring Michael Essien back with him. The likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard were always willing to be involved. The absence of stars like Didier Drogba just means it won’t be the same.

‘He’s coming, he’s coming!’ Brace yourself for the fanfare and a love-in between Mourinho and the media. Mourinho has spent the last year alienating himself from the Spanish press whilst cleverly convincing the British media that they adore him.

I hope Mourinho is successful for the sake of English football. The Premiership is certainly in need of a boost. But I wonder if it would’ve been better to hold on to the nostalgic memories of Mourinho’s story at Chelsea rather than to add a new chapter which has the potential to ruin the ending.

Mourinho is an effective manager for specific situations and is a fascinating man. But whether he is tailored for Chelsea in 2013 is certainly questionable.

Follow me on Twitter @RichMaher93

Wish farewell to 'The Golden Generation'. They should never return as, yet again, they deflate the nation

As I, as well as half the nation, enter into the early stages of depression, the jolly tunes of ‘World In Motion’ are drowned out by Oasis’ apt, ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’. England are defeated. Defeated and disgraced. The golden generation are over and there are so many unanswered questions rapidly meeting our ears as we sit and dwell on what could’ve been.

Sepp Blatter says “fans love to talk about wrong decisions”. This is his reasoning for not employing the much called for goal-line technology. Mr. Blatter is clearly not your average football fan. As he is pampered in his luxurious world of being the FIFA chief executive, he has clearly lost touch with reality. Fans hate these scandalous decisions. They hate the fact that, if the destroying decision to call Frank Lampard’s spectacular ’goal’ was rightfully given as a goal rather than the outrageous call of a “no goal”, we could be having yet another England barbecue in a few days time. They hate the fact that the media will talk about it until the premiership begins and something new, scandalous becomes the major talking point. They hate the fact it will be used as an excuse to paper over the cracks of a disgusting performance which insults them all. They hate the fact they’ll never know what might have been.

Because it was a terrible performance. As I look back, it’s rather difficult to understand why we invested so much optimism in this game. We always invest our belief in them, they beg for our support in their darkest hour, and they always let us down. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry. Names we will probably never see in an England world cup squad again. It was their last chance and they could barely pass the ball. Fabio Capello; tactical genius? No. Mr. Capello has let us down, “the best manager we’ve ever had” we bellowed proudly at foreign rivals. He stubbornly dismissed the option of playing Gerrard behind Wayne Rooney, he pushed Joe Cole on the pitch in the dieing minutes of our campaign to cover his own back and he didn’t even organise a decent defence. In fact; the defence was truly woeful as they constantly strayed out of position and desperately clambered to strengthen their laughably stretched back line.

Wayne Rooney. Admittedly he’s carried the hopes of our nation on his shoulders for some time now, but if he does want to fulfil his potential as the superstar he could become then he must take responsibility and produce the displays expected of him.

Numerous times I watched Manchester United last season, on so many occasions a shiver has rocketed down my spine as Rooney is clattered to the floor and I pray in hope that he gets up and is ok for the world cup. What a waste of time. Rooney’s performances have been nothing short of pathetic for England and I must say, I feel personally disillusioned with him. Every time he lethargically admired the ball as it bounced in front of him, “throw yourself at it” the nation would roar, frustration built as the goalkeeper gratefully cleared up with pleasure.

When the final whistle went of this Germany game, it’s likely the frustration thermometer inside the hearts of England fans finally reached boiling point as they internally exploded and their hopes and dreams for England spontaneously combusted.

All the goals were pathetically conceded with simple counter attacks employed by the Germans. To concede four in a game of such magnitude is simply a disparaging humiliation. When Matthew Upson scored that header and that regretful moment of Lampard’s ‘goal’ erupted onto our screens it genuinely looked like one of them landmark moments. That game you tell your grandchildren about. The time the British spirit was at it’s very best as the underdog battled their way into the lead and progressed into a latter round. It was never to be.

With England, it’s questionable as to whether it ever will be. In my life-time? Debatable. And I’m 16 years-old. That group of players were something special, for their clubs at least, and as you expected them to build international experience and adjust to each other’s playing style in time for a romantic tournament victory, they’ve simply deflated and succumbed to England’s worst world cup defeat of all time. The new generation; Jack Rodwell, Adam Johnson, Joe Hart. Good players, but they’re not Lampards, Gerrards or Beckham. But we must wish goodbye to these talismanic figures who’ve continually abandoned us and left us in a state of unbearable disenchantment.

I sincerely hope these men never play for England again. Yes; Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson and Wayne Rooney will. But we must look to the future. Perhaps be sensible and build a team who will play together and will forge a push for the championship we've longingly wished for, but admittedly, never deserved.

Why football should employ a salary cap

As Premiership clubs are warned about their wage structures and recent statistics reveal that top flight clubs were spending around 1.3 billion on player wages even before Manchester City’s big-spending summer, we are yet again faced with the inevitable, yet predictable question; should football have a salary cap? The sport seems to have taken one step to far in recent times with irresponsible, uneducated footballers such as John Terry and Ashley Cole making publicly visible life errors and arguably, mediocre players such as Kieron Dyer and Michael Ballack remaining on astronomical wages. Unless you’re as deluded as the Chelsea left-back’s women judgement, the answer is a categorical yes.
Clubs such as West Ham, Crystal Palace and most notably Portsmouth have been placed in severe danger of ceasing to exist completely; an eventual state which would be a bloodcurdling disaster for staunch supporters. Fans will loose their love, which they have cherished throughout generations and the integrity of the sport will suffer a major dent if clubs with any form of history and heritage begin to disappear off of the face of the earth. The reason for this; astronomical wages which are financially crippling clubs with any kind of ambition. More and more foreign owners are breaking into the premiership toy shop, playing with a club, demanding instant success, handing out ridiculous contracts to playing staff; and if all goes wrong? They simply walk away, find something new to play with and leave the broken toy waiting for a saviour, reminiscent of David Gold and David Sullivan picking up the pieces at West Ham after the outlandish, unsustainable Icelandic era, fronted by Eggert Magnusson - and as debt increases, less of these heroic figures are going to be able to save the plight of doomed clubs.
The job of a footballer requires little responsibility - as doctors, nurses and soldiers struggle to stay out of the red, these uneducated fools are splashing out on Bentleys without a care in the world - how can this be logical? When these men and women fight for our country and save our lives, it seems staggering that a young man who kicks a ball around for 90 minutes on a weekend can get paid double in a week in comparison to what these high-profile professions earn in a whole year. A salary cap must be enforced.
As a casual fan of America’s NFL, it’s obvious this system has worked wonders in making their league one of the best domestic sport leagues in history to date. Every year holds an exciting race for the Superbowl title, with even games, competitive players and eventually an unpredictable champion. It’s a tried and tested method. It’s worked extremely effectively; so why not use it?
However; I must stress that I’m only in favour of the salary cap it it’s enforced on a global basis by FIFA. Players would simply request transfers abroad if nations such as Germany, Italy or Spain had no wage restrictions and this would degrade the quality of the league completely, turning the English premiership from what I believe is the greatest football league in the world to a mediocre campaign.
You may argue that if a club has money, why shouldn’t they be able to spend it? That’s why giving each club a unique salary cap based on their turnover is a rational option - this would mean large clubs such as Manchester United, who work hard on increasing their stature throughout the world and make colossal sums each year from selling their brand would have the ability to hand out bigger contracts than the likes of say, Wigan Athletic, who obviously don’t make anywhere near the same profit as United. As success breeds popularity, each club would strive to reach the top in order to make money and gain a lenient salary cap, meaning clubs would be unable the simply buy success and would have to gain stature naturally before being able to spend titanic sums of money in order to sustain their success.
Of course there is the argument that with foreign owners giving mammoth wages to English residents, the taxes are coming back into the country. But, with the economy in the dire state it is, these taxes obviously aren’t doing much good. The reality is, the government will always spend out of their means, no matter how much money is coming into the country. Footballers taxes appear relatively ineffectual at this current state, so why not change it? Football will provide it’s fair share of money for the country anyway if is able to win the 2018 world cup bid.
Yes; football gives an opportunity for the middle-class to earn big money and achieve a dream of being ‘rich’, but, in this respect, football is more of a distraction from education than a realistic, potential career. An extremely limited amount of hopefuls make it as a professional, so if gullible youngsters unrealistically believe they can be the next boy wonder, their education could suffer through lack of caring and a poor attitude under the belief they don’t need the qualifications. If wages were capped, perhaps these students would work harder on their studies rather than following the “£” signs provided by football. For the uneducated boys who actually do move into the game, role model status is instantly their, as idols to thousands, a huge number of kids aspire to be like these players because of the money they earn. If they didn’t receive such obscene amounts, perhaps more suitable role-models would be selected such as attainable jobs like doctors and lawyers.
Obviously I am in complete favour of a global salary cap for football, it will keep the clubs safe, the supporters happy and take the game back to what it originally was - a working man’s game and no longer a corporate monster which sucks all the fun out of a game which is, after all; entertainment.