MOURINHO SEES RED

In the final clash between money and management, Mourinho reportedly texted Lampard first to tell inform him of his departure.

Well.

Its not really a shock but..its an upset, undoubtedly.

Its no surprise that Mourinho was not happy or fitting in with Abramovich's plan for his billion dollar bench investment. The issues with how Mourinho was handling Abramovich's tactics and strategy seemed to be the problem.

Soccer nowadays is moreso a business than a hobby and for many fans, watching their hometown clubs go the way of Chelsea and Man U creates a steady fear that the soul of the club will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Worst case scenario for any club, though, is the Leeds United debacle. You want a club that can manage its money and budget for but Abramovich has gone so far as to factor in two European Cups in the next ten years to create his Chelsea Dynasty to achieve the return he needs from his costly investment. Deliberate, tactical, and impossible to predict, Abramovich seems to believe that if he places in all the right players, the team will win...in theory, it should work, but soccer is never that formulaic.

A dynasty and a self-sufficient club are two different things, and many coaches from days gone by just are not prepared to deal with the advancing business plans that so many boards and owners have for their clubs...with the managers and the players as pawns to reach those goals. Some players just want nothing to do with it (read: Henry leaving Arsenal) even though they likely acknowledge the realities, they don't want to be pawns, under appreciated, or bothered by it at all. Arsenal's stakes have been divided up and the make up of the board has caused players to leave and fueled endless rumors about Wenger's intent to remain at Arsenal. Even though the Gunners found relief when Wenger recommitted, it was an alert that once again, a manager so a part of a club could be forced out not because of his performance on the pitch or his relations with the players but with how he feels about the men giving orders upstairs.

Certainly the players and managers aren't losing out entirely. Fans want wins, managers need them and players live for them but maybe we're seeing the turning point of what can be tolerated and what cannot.

True, Mourinho has gotten a bad rap and so has Abramovich - held out as examples of this growing clash between money and management. Abramovich came in quick and spent money in a way only a Russian billionaire like himself can afford, and Mourinho has not been secretive about his feelings for Abramovich, or authority in general (remember the dog quarantine affair). Public opinion has largely been that Abramovich was planning some sort of move to get Chelsea, who have only played 6 games thus far, into a position to win the league and the cup this year and it clearly wasn't waiting until the January transfer window to buy more strikers.

Did Abramovich blame Mourinho for issues out of everyone's control? Drogba and Lampard are injured, and nothing but time can do any good for them. They are goal scorers and without them, the goals have been lacking. Shevchenko certainly made an odd return - clearly not fit from being off the Chelsea line up for so long but is that Mourinho's fault? Shevchenko's fitness may be part of his poor form lately but perhaps its also that he may not be cut out for the EPL. It does happen to otherwise quality players (Read: Michael Ballack). Rumor had it that Mourinho was purposefully not playing Shevchenko because he never wanted him and Abramovich did, and paid an EPL record £30 million transfer fee for him. Not only is it unfair for Shevchenko but ridiculous for Mourinho to play games with talented players, putting the team in jeopardy. The driving issue of course is that Mourinho clearly did not like nor take well to being told how to manage his club. Therein lies the problem.

The purse strings hold alot of control over a club and its facial identity but its the manager that gives the players the heart, strategy, confidence, and control that all teams need to succeed, and managers cannot do their jobs with a constant bottom line mentality. No one likes to lose but having numbers pushed in your faces cheapens the game. Sure, winning and losing has always involved sums of cash but its clear that Chelsea is a club who has sacrificed its history for a well funded glory hunt that will last as long as it takes - but hopefully not more than 10 years - until they are a dynasty. They will need to be able to find a manager who is willing to work with that plan and put it in the forefront alongside the health of the team he's managing. Its a difficult coupling that clearly did not work favorably for Mourinho.

If there is anything to learn about this unfortunate turn of events is that Abramovich is going to have problems getting a coach to do just as he wants and Mourinho is never going to find a club that gives him carte blanch; soccer just doesn't work that way anymore and for the good or the bad, the times have changed and Mourinho seems to have paid the price.

Ultimately it may be Abramovich who will lose the most - he swept in and Chelsea began winning after he dolled out the cash. It was certainly due to the talent of the players but it was also due to timing - soccer is unpredictable, teams of allstars don't always necessarily win games, and Abramovich saw the tide turn last season - reminder, it was only the year before last that Chelsea won the League. Abramovich seems impatient to get back the glory but doesn't seem to want to factor in the other elements: aging/new talent, adjustments to the EPL, and the actions of other teams...there are simply things that Abramovich cannot buy himself out of.

There are probably some burnt bridges and irreparable resentment that has grown between Mourinho and Abramovich and maybe even Mourinho and the players (i.e. locker room showdown with John Terry) - Abramovich may have just wanted to cut his losses and get in a new coach that didn't have that much baggage, no matter if much of it was Abramovich induced. Logically speaking, if you put enough pressure on a coach to win for the sake of winning - and there is certainly an argument for it - he will create a line up that may not play beautiful football but effective football and what happens when a part of that line up is injured, or more than one part? The line up falls apart and the points stop to roll in as easily...and if you shape a team whose history is for big name players and one of those players is injured, the fans stop coming for the team and only go for the players (read: this weeks Champions league game, which Chelsea played at home, against Rosenborg - a small, Norwegian club...they drew 1-1 (thanks to Shevchenko) but the crowd - at Stamford Bridge - was unusual...in that there wasn't much of one. Abramovich was probably not happy and maybe that was the tipping point - not so much the draw but the lack of support).

Abramovich needs team support right now and if he continues to focus on pursuing his dynasty and strong brand power, he needs to be reminded that behind both is a team that plays quality football. No one will doubt that clubs like Liverpool or Arsenal or Manchester City have fans that follow them no matter how many wins or losses (not like they wouldn't make known their frustration) but Chelsea seems to have been on a hunt for glory that lends itself to a fan base that is used to wins and big name players and when both are lacking, don't bother to show up. That is the biggest hole in Abramovich's dynasty plan and its one that won't be mended with a new coach - as much as Abramovich may want wins and points, he needs supporters that will be with the coach on cold Wednesday afternoon games, at home, against no-name teams - but he first needs to be that fan. There are some things that money simply cannot buy and Abramovich would do well to learn that lesson, and quick.