RBSC

**Sir X** · September 19, 2007, 07:56 PM

Manager Mourinho leaves Chelsea

Mourinho's position was the subject of continual scrutiny last season
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has sensationally left Stamford Bridge, according to BBC Radio 5live football correspondent Jonathan Legard.
The news comes just 24 hours after the disappointing Champions League draw against Rosenborg.

Legard understands that Mourinho has texted senior players, including skipper John Terry, with the news of his departure from Stamford Bridge.

There has been no official word so far from the Premiership club.

Report: BBC football correspondent Jonathan Legard

Mourinho joined Chelsea in the summer of 2004 and led them to the Premiership title in his first two seasons in charge.

Last season they finished runners-up to Manchester United but won both the FA Cup and Carling Cup, a trophy they had also collected in 2005.

However the Champions League eluded the club and this season's campaign started with Tuesday's shock 1-1 result against the Norwegians.

Bookmark with:
Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
What are these?
SEE ALSO
Mourinho is key to glory - Kenyon
18 Sep 07 | Chelsea
Chelsea 1-1 Rosenborg
18 Sep 07 | Europe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RELATED BBC LINKS:
Football on the BBC
Chelsea fans' views on 606
BBC London audio
Chelsea weather
BBC Sport Premier League

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Chelsea
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Daily and weekly e-mails | Mobiles | Desktop Tools | News Feeds | Interactive Television | Downloads BBC Copyright NoticeMMVIIBack to top ^^ Sport Homepage | Football | Cricket | Rugby Union | Rugby League | Tennis | Golf | Motorsport | Boxing | Athletics | Snooker | Horse Racing | Cycling | Disability Sport | Olympics 2012 | Sport Relief | Other Sport...

**Sir X** · September 19, 2007, 07:57 PM

Jose: It's all over - Chelsea boss texts players to say he's leaving
By NEIL ASHTON - More by this author »

Last updated at 00:15am on 20th September 2007

Comments

Jose Mourinho's turbulent reign at Chelsea is expected to end today after he sent text messages to five senior players last night telling them he was leaving.

Mourinho caught Chelsea's hierarchy by surprise after the premiere of the club's documentary Blue Revolution by demanding talks at Stamford Bridge over his future.

Those talks went on late into last night, but his players are under the impression that the 1-1 draw against Rosenborg on Tuesday night was his last match in charge.

Mourinho, who has been at loggerheads with the Chelsea board for the past 12 months, sent text messages to five players at 6pm.

By midnight, the entire first-team squad were aware that Mourinho, who led the club to two Premiership titles after joining the club in June 2004, will be forced out by their billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

The Chelsea manager told his players that he will report to the training ground as usual today, but it will be only to say goodbye after just over three years at the club.

Incredibly, Juande Ramos, who was in charge of Sevilla during their 3-0 defeat against Arsenal in the Champions League last night, is being linked with the job.

Ramos turned down Tottenham last month when it emerged that he was waiting for a bigger offer, but he is one of many names on Chelsea's radar after leading Sevilla to two successive UEFA Cup triumphs.

Mourinho still has three years left on a contract worth a staggering £6.5million a year, but Abramovich is prepared to pay up a huge proportion of that.

At the time he signed the deal, Mourinho said: "My heart is with Chelsea and the fantastic group of players that I have but the vision of the owner and the board for the future of Chelsea is also one I want to be a part of it. I cannot imagine another situation or another club where I could be happier. I am totally behind this project."

Chelsea's board have become increasingly restless following the club's disjointed start to the season, which has left the club fifth in the Premier League, two points behind leaders Arsenal after six games, and it manifested itself after the 1-1 draw against Norwegian minnows Rosenborg in their first Champions League group game on Tuesday.

Mourinho complained, as he has complained every week since the start of the season, about injuries to key players, and that has not sat easily with the board.

Incredibly, Mourinho's decision to leave Stamford Bridge after three years at the club comes just two days before they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the Premier League in one of the biggest games of the season.

It means assistant manager Steve Clarke or director of football Avram Grant will be asked to take the team on Sunday.

Add your comment Comments (0)

**Sir X** · September 19, 2007, 07:59 PM

Mourinho on Porto F.C coach.......The Class of Mourinho is that of a dog , no love lost here , esp from a liverpool man who had alot to do with his outing.

Manuel Jesualdo Ferreira, 61, has been a coach since he was 28, when he started working with Portugal's under-17 team.

As well as working for the Portuguese Football Association, Ferreira has coached at Academica, Torreense, Estrela, Alverca, Benfica, Braga and Porto.

Ferreira will have one thing in common with Liverpool manager Benitez - they are unlikely to be on Mourinho's Christmas card list.

Ferreira and Mourinho first crossed paths in the 1980s, when the Chelsea coach was a student at the Lisbon Superior Institute for Physical Education and the current Porto coach was a teacher there.

In 2002, when he was briefly Benfica coach, Mourinho refused to accept the appointment of Ferreira as his assistant.

And in February 2005, Mourinho had a swipe at Ferreira in his weekly column for Portuguese magazine Record Dez.

Comparing himself with Ferreira, Mourinho wrote: "One is a coach with a 30-year career, the other with a three-year one.

"The one with 30 years has never won anything; the one with three years has won a lot. The one who has coached for 30 years has an enormous career; the one with three years has a small career.

"The one with a 30-year career will be forgotten when he ends it; the one with three could end it right now and he could never be erased from history.

"This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but never became a horse."

However, journalist Da Silva is more charitable towards the man who has been Porto's coach for just over a year.

"He is good technically," said Da Silva. "He is a good student of football and probably of men."

**Sir X** · September 19, 2007, 08:20 PM

Trouble in the Russian barracks...lol

**Sir X** · September 19, 2007, 08:44 PM

End of the road for gunslinger who played like an accountant
The Special One gave Chelsea fans everything, but failed when it came to Abramovich’s simple request – to win every trophy in sightMartin Samuel, Chief Football Correspondent
If José Mourinho’s football had been as dramatic and exciting as the manner of his departure, he would still be manager of Chelsea this morning.

That was Mourinho’s great irony. In person, he was challenging, entertaining, fiery, passionate, bold, outspoken, a man who would say the unsayable and not think twice about it, who could turn the cut and thrust of question and answer into a verbal battleground, explosions and casualties everywhere.

Had he taken that charisma on to the football pitch, he would have had a job for life spending the money of Roman Abramovich. Yet something happened to Mourinho when he took his personality into the sporting arena. He became another person: cautious, pragmatic, conservative. He talked like the last gunslinger in town and sent his team out with all the abandon of a junior accountant, Swindon branch.

Last night, in a flurry of text messages, he said goodbye to his senior players and was gone, a typically theatrical gesture leaving mysteries over whether he fell or was pushed, or whether in classic Mourinho fashion he made an incendiary statement from which there was no way back. Sadly, the manner of his departure sums up the malaise that has affected Stamford Bridge for far too long. For almost a year, the most exciting thing about Chelsea has been what Mourinho will do next.

Related Links
Mourinho leaves Chelsea after Abramovich bust-up
Lack of thrills and high prices prove big turn-off
Caveman style a turn-off for many
In all truthfulness, this parting could have happened on any night this year. The worst-kept secret in football has been the deterioration of the relationship between manager and owner.

Abramovich’s demands are simple. He wants his players to win every trophy in sight, while balancing the ball on their noses like sea lions. He does not just want champions. He wants champions who entertain, who thrill and exhilarate in the manner of Arsène Wenger’s unbeaten Arsenal. He picked the wrong manager, then.

Mourinho was never going to be that guy. He built an excellent FC Porto team on the ethos of hard graft, good organisation and no stars. He had stars at Chelsea, but they were stars he had created, such as John Terry and Frank Lampard, players who grew in stature under his guidance. When he was given other famous names, such as Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, his discomfort was obvious. There was only one marquee name required as Stamford Bridge, and it was his. The star was his philosophy, the methods and game plan he set out before the season began and rigidly adhered to throughout the campaign.

Terry said that Mourinho did all his work in three weeks of pre-season, telling the players that they must memorise the strategies now because there would be no time for revision when the matches were coming thick and fast. Anyone who forgot, Terry said, was out. This made for a fantastically disciplined team; it made for a Chelsea team who won back-to-back titles and, on their day, were a Terminator-like force, relentlessly moving through the Premier League; but it did not make for the fantasy that Abramovich demanded. Chelsea crushed opposition like Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest. Abramovich is from a different age of Russia’s revolution.

The two highlights of Mourinho’s time at Chelsea are the 3-0 win over Manchester United to clinch the title in 2006 and the win over Barcelona at Stamford Bridge when Terry’s sheer determination overrode one of the goals of the season from Ronaldinho.

What will never be understood about Mourinho’s reign is why he could not trust his players to perform like that more often. On the day that Chelsea defeated United it looked as if they had turned a corner. Ricardo Carvalho broke forward from defence to score a stunning goal, the football was technically superior, high-tempo, combining the best of all worlds. Yet by the next season, even with Shevchenko and Ballack on the books, Mourinho had reverted to familiar inhibition and victory by degrees.

The casualties of his thinking are invariably the flair players. Joe Cole has never been able to relax with Mourinho in charge; Arjen Robben, one of the best wingers in the world, was sold to Real Madrid. It has taken Shaun Wright-Phillips almost two years to graduate to a place in the first team. Yet, at the World Cup finals in 2006, Chelsea players let off the leash frequently stole the show. Joe Cole was England’s best midfield player, Robben a revelation, Michael Essien a powerhouse attacking midfield player for Ghana. If the question occurred to the rest of the world, it must have occurred to Abramovich, too: what does Mourinho demand of these players that he makes them dull?

It left Mourinho vulnerable, as he has been for almost a year. Conservative winning football was just about bearable in Abramovich’s eyes; conservative losing football, of the type played by Chelsea last season and at the start of this, was unforgivable. Clearly, if Chelsea are to lose to Aston Villa or draw at home to Rosenberg, Abramovich wants them to go down giving the best show in town. It was never going to be a happy marriage: the manager who wanted to win ugly and the owner who would risk losing beautifully.

They will be better apart than together. Mourinho will be a great manager at a club where nobody is putting unrealistic demands on the day-to-day grind of winning a competition as strength-sapping as a big European League (particularly, in this case, the Barclays Premier League), while Abramovich will get a manager who will be under no illusions about the fantastic nature of what is expected.

In the end, Abramovich was not prepared to give Mourinho the autonomy he demanded and Mourinho was not prepared to compromise his blueprint for success. The amazing thing is that it lasted so long. Michael Jackson’s nuptials had more chance

**Sickko** · September 19, 2007, 08:53 PM

The Special One walks away from Chelsea

Manager Mourinho leaves Chelsea

Mourinho's position was the subject of continual scrutiny last season

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has sensationally left Stamford Bridge, according to BBC Radio 5live football correspondent Jonathan Legard.

The news comes just 24 hours after the disappointing Champions League draw against Rosenborg.

Legard understands that Mourinho has texted senior players, including skipper John Terry, with the news of his departure from Stamford Bridge.
There has been no official word so far from the Premier League club.

Report: BBC football correspondent Jonathan Legard

Archive: Mourinho's first season with Chelsea

Mourinho joined Chelsea in the summer of 2004 and led them to the Premiership title in each of his first two seasons in charge.
Last season they finished runners-up to Manchester United but won both the FA Cup and Carling Cup, a trophy they had also collected in 2005.
His achievements also saw him voted as Premiership manager of the year in 2005 and 2006.

MOURINHO'S CHELSEA RECORD
2 June, 2004 - Appointed manager

27 February, 2005 - Wins Carling Cup 3-2 v Liverpool

30 April, 2005 - Beat Bolton 2-0 to win Premiership title

4 May, 2005 - Signs new five-year contract

29 April, 2006 - Beat Man Utd 3-0 to win Premiership again

27 February, 2007 - Beat Arsenal 2-1 to win Carling Cup

19 May, 2007 - Win FA Cup by beating Man Utd 1-0 at Wembley

19 September, 2007 - Leaves Stamford Bridge

However the Champions League trophy eluded the club and this season's campaign started with Tuesday's shock 1-1 result against the Norwegians in front of a crowd of just 24,973.

It was their third successive game without a win following a 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa and a goalless draw with Blackburn in the Premier League.
Those results have left Chelsea fifth in the table - two points behind leaders Arsenal and with a visit to Manchester United to come on Sunday.
He did have one unique record during his reign in never losing a home league game at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho signed a five-year contract in 2005 and quashed speculation in January that he would leave Stamford Bridge in the summer by saying he was happy to see out his deal if he received "real support" from the club.

**Tilla** · September 19, 2007, 10:27 PM

It is kind of funny, as only yesterday the Chelsea CEO Peter Kenyon was saying Murinho is a part of their long term plans, now this.

----------------------------------------------
Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 09:38 GMT 10:38 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Mourinho is key to glory - Kenyon

Mourinho (left) is integral to Chelsea's
future, says Kenyon

Chief executive Peter Kenyon insists Chelsea's hunger for success will not cost manager Jose Mourinho his job.

Kenyon says Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's long-term plans for the Blues include Mourinho at the helm.

He said: "There's loads of speculation that if we don't win Jose gets fired, but that's not the way we think.

"It's about winning in style and building that dynasty, and that's what Roman wants to be part of; Chelsea becoming part of Europe's dynasty."
Former Manchester United chief executive Kenyon revealed Chelsea's desire to become a worldwide brand in the same manner as his former employers.

Kenyon said: "Over a 10-year period, you need two European Cups to be a world club, and you have to dominate your domestic league.
"We have an infrastructure to deal with that and people to deal with it.

"We will win the Champions League, the question is when," Kenyon says in the Chelsea documentary Blue Revolution.

"We've got a squad, a structure, a belief and we've got quality; I believe the Champions League is not far away."

Kenyon also claims Mourinho is the most similar manager to Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson he has yet seen.

After joining Chelsea in 2003, Kenyon was instrumental in bringing former Porto boss Mourinho to Stamford Bridge to succeed Claudio Ranieri.

The Chelsea chief executive said: "After the first week I didn't feel Ranieri was up to the job. Having been around a winner like Sir Alex, Ranieri certainly didn't come into that class, so we embarked on looking for a new manager.

"We came up with Mourinho who was young and different.

If we win, we want to win stylishly, everyone buys into that

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon
"We'd seen some of the best names but he was hungry and thought differently and I saw he had some of the same qualities as Alex Ferguson.
"He's a winner and we were lucky enough to get him, and I think we've had some success since then."

Kenyon also revealed that Abramovich has concerns about Chelsea's on-field image, and that the Russian billionaire is keen to couple success with style.

"He's passionate about Chelsea; he's passionate about how we are perceived, how we do things. If we win, we want to win stylishly, everyone buys into that. "He's the best possible thing that could have happened to Chelsea," added Kenyon. "He's thoughtful, he's strong and he's been a very successful businessman. But he's very different to how anybody would portray him because nobody knows him."

**Hortical** · September 19, 2007, 10:43 PM

Video report from skysports.
http://www.skysports.com/video/0,202...741652,00.html

**Tilla** · September 19, 2007, 10:50 PM

September 20, 2007

Jose Mourinho leaves Chelsea after bust-up

Matt Hughes

José Mourinho dramatically left Chelsea with immediate effect yesterday after a final bust-up with Roman Abramovich. Late last night there was growing evidence that the manager had not walked out on the club but had been dismissed.

Mourinho is understood to have contacted five senior players in the afternoon to tell them that he was leaving, without offering any detailed explanation for his sudden departure.

He is believed to have phoned Frank Lampard before sending text messages to several other players, telling them only that he had had enough and would not see them again. The exact circumstances behind his departure are already being disputed, but Jorge Mendes, Mourinho’s agent, is expected to fly to London today to negotiate a payoff.

The news of Mourinho’s departure appears to have taken many of Chelsea’s senior executives by surprise. Peter Kenyon, the chief executive, Bruce Buck, the chairman, and Abramovich’s key aide, Eugene Tenenbaum, were called to an emergency meeting at Stamford Bridge last night to discuss the crisis. That meeting broke up at 1.20 this morning and Tenenbaum left without making any comment.

The majority of Chelsea’s staff and players had been enjoying a relaxing evening at a cinema at Fulham Broadway watching a screening of Blue Revolution, a new documentary about the Abramovich years, but were called away to deal with revolutionary events of their own. Abramovich, the billionaire owner, had cancelled a business trip earlier in the day to hold talks with Tenenbaum, although they were initially thought to be about the poor attendance for Tuesday’s Champions League draw with Rosenborg rather than the manager’s future.

Mourinho’s relationship with Abramovich appears to have become fractured beyond repair. He has barely been on speaking terms with the Russian since a huge row erupted in January over a lack of funds to sign players during the transfer window, Mourinho’s reluctance to play Andriy Shevchenko and the owner’s desire to bring in Avram Grant to work with the misfiring striker. The former Israel coach was recruited in the summer as director of football as a fragile peace broke out, but it has proved to be brief.

Mourinho and Abramovich are said to have exchanged strong words after Saturday’s goalless draw against Blackburn Rovers. Abramovich spent time searching for a replacement as their relationship soured at the end of last season, making a firm offer to Jürgen Klinsmann, but he reluctantly decided to give Mourinho one more season.

Mourinho — whose £5.2 million-a-year contract was to expire in 2010 — has long since concluded that he was not being allowed to do his job. His authority was undermined by Abramovich’s decision to recruit Frank Arnesen from Tottenham Hotspur as director of scouting and youth development in May 2005 and further eroded by the signing of Shevchenko and the arrival of Grant, who is well placed to take over as a caretaker manager.

Mourinho’s departure brings to an end a stormy three-year reign during which he ended Chelsea’s 50-year wait for the league title, following up with a second championship, but failed to realise Abramovich’s dream of conquering Europe. Chelsea must search for a replacement, with Guus Hiddink, Klinsmann and Didier Deschamps, the former Juventus coach, likely to be targeted for one of the most highly rewarded but highpressure jobs in world football.

© Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd.

**Tilla** · September 19, 2007, 10:56 PM

Mourinho severs his ties with Chelsea

Watch the video of Jose Mourinho's last press conference here

Dominic Fifield
Thursday September 20, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Jose Mourinho has astonishingly called time on a glittering three-year reign as Chelsea's manager by severing his ties with the deposed Premier League champions. Long-standing differences with the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, have re-emerged so strongly that they have forced him into the drastic step of leaving the club.

The Portuguese contacted his captain, John Terry, and other senior players at Stamford Bridge last night to indicate that he would be going, his relationship with Abramovich, fractious at best last season, having deteriorated further. More talks are likely between Mourinho's representatives and the club's hierarchy over the remaining years of his £5.2m-a-year contract, which runs until 2010, with compensation close to being agreed.

The resignation came as a huge disappointment to Chelsea's players and will shock the club's supporters. Mourinho's backroom staff will be leaving with him, including his assistant manager Steve Clarke. Avram Grant, the club's director of football, is set to take charge of the team for the visit to their arch rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

The resignation came in the wake of a crisis meeting between Mourinho and Abramovich after Tuesday's draw against Rosenborg in the opening round of the Champions League. The manager is expected at the Cobham training ground today to say his goodbyes.

Under Mourinho the club ended a 50-year wait for the league championship by claiming the title in 2005, a feat they repeated a year later. Last season may have seen the title surrendered to Manchester United but there was success in the FA Cup and Carling Cup, and a second Champions League semi-final under the Portuguese in three years.

Although that is the furthest Chelsea have progressed in Europe's elite competition, the manager's failure to emulate his staggering achievement in winning the Champions League in 2004 while at his previous club, Porto, has undoubtedly contributed to the breakdown in his relationship with Abramovich.

In addition there were ructions over the role afforded to Frank Arnesen as the club's head of youth development and the appointment of Grant, a move which was initially opposed by Mourinho, who believed it undermined his power base. He was further upset by the refusal of the club to sanction the purchase of a centre-half during the January transfer window and by the signing last summer of the £30m Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack against his wishes.

That prompted persistent suggestions that last season would be Mourinho's last at the club, particularly given the side's failure to retain the Premier League title. Such speculation was rejected by the manager this year. "There are only two ways for me to leave Chelsea," he said at the time. "One way is in June 2010 when I finish my contract and if the club doesn't give me a new one. It is the end of my contract and I am out. The second way is for Chelsea to sack me. The way of the manager leaving the club by deciding to walk away, no chance! I will never do this to Chelsea supporters."

The reality is somewhat different today. Although there have been public shows of unity between owner and manager since then, not least on the side's pre-season tour of California, the simmering antipathy has remained and the relationship deteriorated further during a sloppy start to this campaign. Chelsea lost at Aston Villa, were fortunate to draw at Liverpool and failed to beat Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, with a team denied key players through injury labouring to cope with the hierarchy's sudden demand for more stylish football.

Mourinho has always been a practical manager, putting emphasis more on results than swagger, but Abramovich made a point in talks over the summer that he expected a more expansive and attractive game from the club he has bankrolled to the tune of some £500m since 2003. The Russian was not appeased by domestic cup success last term and remains deeply frustrated by Chelsea's inability to secure a first European Cup.

He cut an angry figure as he strode across the turf at a deserted Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night after the embarrassing 1-1 draw with Rosenborg, the lowest ranked team in the competition proper and a side with only one away win in the Champions League in 20 matches. Chelsea are still expected to progress in the group but the nature of the performance did little to convince Abramovich that they are a side capable of claiming the trophy he covets most of all. Even so the loss of the self-proclaimed "Special One" is startling. The club's chief executive, Peter Kenyon, outlined Chelsea's vision of the future this week, insisting: "There's loads of speculation that if we don't win Jose gets fired, but that's not the way we think. It's about building and it's about winning it in a style, in a manner, which I think is befitting of the best clubs in Europe." Abramovich is likely to target his friend Guus Hiddink, particularly should Russia fail to qualify for Euro 2008, as a potential replacement.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

**Gamma** · September 20, 2007, 07:28 AM

unreal.....chelsea had won anything major in 5o years won EPL titles back to back and is being forced out?

i think he was a victim of his own success....arrogant? yes but he had what there is to be arrogant about.

it is a downward spiral for chelsea now.

**Lazie** · September 20, 2007, 08:28 AM

Well, if him never walk today, him would be fired on Sunday. As arrogant as he was .... he made Chelsea the team they are today.

Imagine, dem deh a 5th and a cuss, suppose dem di deh a 18th like Manu? Suh the new man in charge is Grant? I wonder if he will be fired after Sunday's game?

**Lazie** · September 20, 2007, 08:33 AM

Well, Carlos Quieros say him may walk away from Manu come December, it appears, Jose lining up to be Fergie's under study.

**Gamma** · September 20, 2007, 09:55 AM

to be ANYBODY's understudy in the EPL would be a huge "come down" for mourinho and i would be surprised if he does it as arrogant as he is! i cannot see that....a team like bolton could well use him....that would be a huge filip for them but not during the season...and mourinho wouldn't do that either....he wants to create his own team.

RBSC

Announcement

Mourinho to quit Chelsea?

Mourinho to quit Chelsea?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment