Premier League title is the least Chelsea should expect
February 25th, 2025by Paul Cantwell
There are certain managers for whom every public utterance is scrutinised, dissected and happily challenged by the frothing wolves of a media pack all too eager to sink their teeth into any perceived contradictions or for the modern-day football manager the media are every inch as formidable an opponent as the identity of the man in the next dugout, a foe to be taken lightly at their peril. For every manager that is, except Jose Mourinho, for whom every laughably absurd and self-serving address is treated with as much deference and sincerity as though it were delivered from a mount in the Middle East a few millennia ago.
In fact, it's difficult to think of a more prolific expounder of nonsense in the world of football than the Portugese for whom every campaign can be filed into one of two categories; the successful ones and the ones in which he was cheated. For in Jose's world there can be no other explanation for short-comings. Eliminated from the Champions League at Camp Nou? Clearly the referree's fault and not the person responsible for playing Robert Huth up front. Lose a Champions League Semi-final against a Liverpool side costing a fraction of his own team? Clearly the fault of the linesman and nothing to do with his own side's failure to resister a single attempt on target over 180 minutes against a defence containing Djimi Troare. Unable to budge Barcelona from their perch? Why, a Uefa conspiracy, of course, and nothing to do with an inability to get the best out of the most expensively assembled side in the history of the game.
The list goes on. In the world of Jose there is only winning and victimhood. Retaining a level of infallibility the likes of which a dozen popes could only dream, Mourinho's list of excuses and qualification for failure is truly extraordinary, but his latest one surely tops them all and once more the mainstream media report his comments almost entirely without challenge. According to the Chelsea boss, his team are 'a small horse' (underdog to you and me) in this season's title race. Although this ploy is as nakedly self-serving as all his others, it deserves particular attention.
Designed to both deflect any potential criticism should his side fail to secure the title, as well as amplify the praise should they succeed, Mourinho's assertion that Chelsea be considered underdogs has taken managerial nonsense to a whole new level. To hear Mourinho talk of his prospects of success in the current campaign you could be forgiven for thinking he was managing Hull or Cardiff or even Liverpool.
The reality, of course, is that the Portugese is actually in charge of
