Jose Mourinho In The Midest Of Crisis Of His career

Jose Mourinho has been called many things over the years but rarely powerless. Not the Machiavellian mastermind, the manager with the capacity to get under his rivals’ skins and the best from his own players. Not the Special One with the special formula for delivering silverware.

Yet the Chelsea manager looks strangely impotent now. He has formulated a conspiracy theory or two in his time. Now he is reduced to complaining that even technology is working – or rather not – against him. He had planned a tactical presentation to prime his charges for Saturday’s trip to Everton. But the computer said 'no' and Mourinho was thwarted.


But he wasn’t raging against the fates at Goodison Park. Instead, he wore the look of a man resigned to seeing things go wrong. He has started talking up substandard performances. The Mourinho of old was happy to be judged by his results. Nor was he satisfied by deeply flawed displays.

The Mourinho of old tended to land his major transfer targets rather than seeing them excel against his teams, as John Stones did for Everton on Saturday, to illustrate precisely why he wanted to sign them.

The Mourinho of old used to mock Manuel Pellegrini, Arsene Wenger and Claudio Ranieri. Now he has to look up the league table to see any of them, just as he does to spot ‘Tactics Tim’ Sherwood and the Premier League rookies Alex Neil and Eddie Howe.

The Mourinho of old forged together an iron defence that only conceded 15 goals in a 38-game season. Now his side has been breached 12 times in five matches. Even Sunderland, who started the campaign as a shambles, have not let in as many.