With all the distractions currently surrounding Chelsea a return trip to Porto is probably the last thing José Mourinho needs, though at least the Champions League is the competition that allowed the club some breathing space after their dismal start to the domestic season, in the form of a straightforward win against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
That result, coupled with Porto’s draw against Dynamo Kiev on the same night, means Chelsea could consolidate a strong position in Group G with victory in Estádio do Dragão on Tuesday, yet this is Mourinho’s third visit as their manager and his record at his old club is not encouraging.
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His initial return was in his first season in England, when a late Benni McCarthy header inflicted Chelsea’s second defeat under his stewardship, three weeks before Christmas. Chelsea managed a draw through an Andriy Shevchenko goal the next time, in 2007, although they lost John Terry to injury and on a feisty night had Petr Cech, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Claude Makélélé booked. On both occasions Chelsea managed to recover the damage at home, though in 2007 Porto took a shock lead before Ballack and Arjen Robben saw Mourinho’s side through.
Porto have changed since Mourinho left them, morphing from a winning team to a selling phenomenon. In the past 10 years the club and the agents they favour have banked in the region of £500m from player sales. It is an interesting question, though an academic one, to ponder how Porto might have fared had they kept hold of James Rodríguez, Pepe, Fernando and Radamel Falcao and many others, though the likelihood is that was never their intention. Porto have established a niche in the market as shrewd movers-on of mostly South American talent and everyone seems happy with the profitability of the exercise.
If only everyone at Chelsea was happy the reunion might turn into a party, though the possibility seems remote at the moment. The big difference Porto will notice, apart from a few more grey hairs and a wholly altered Chelsea squad, is that Mourinho is not returning as the Special One, self-proclaimed or otherwise. He received a warm welcome on his first return because his 2004 Champions League success with Porto was still fresh in the memory. In 2007 he had two Premier League titles under his belt, had topped the group stage ahead of Barcelona and was on his way to another semi-final showdown with Liverpool. He was a manager at the top of his game whereas Mourinho has not been cutting the same sort of dash this season.
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Damaged goods might be putting it a shade too strongly, but he looks like someone whose pride and confidence has taken a battering. Mainly because there is, or was, someone else at the club whose pride and confidence has been completely shot to pieces, all through the manager’s doing.
If Porto fans with memories of the 2004 version could have seen Mourinho’s performance after the Capital One Cup win at Walsall on Wednesday they would have been surprised at the transformation. Sitting hunched behind a table and almost slipping out of sight behind the pulled-up collar of a tightly zipped anorak, Mourinho dealt wearily with the fall-out from Diego Costa’s suspension, Gabriel Paulista’s reprieve, Chelsea’s faltering start to the season and why he was unwilling to reveal his true feelings on refereeing and disciplinary issues. He was not asked about the Eva Carneiro situation, partly because time was short and the situation unsuitable, but mostly because he would have declined to speak on that subject too.
Yet perhaps more than the surprisingly poor results in the Premier League, Mourinho’s treatment of his own medical staff – the physiotherapist Jon Fearn as well as Dr Carneiro – has dominated the negativity surrounding Chelsea. Mourinho was in the wrong and must have known it, yet no apology was forthcoming, there was to be no explanation or olive branch on offer.
A powerful, highly regarded Premier League manager publicly humiliating less well-paid employees at his own club, presumably on the basis that they are expendable, can never be a good look. Someone at Chelsea must be able to see that, ought to have been capable of ending the whole unpleasant situation, yet it has been allowed to fester to the point where Carneiro has had to leave the club to consider her legal position.
Read More at theguardian
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