The blog could also have been like “Why do people hate Chelsea?”, but for many of the so- called "regulars at the EPL", the question is unanswerable, very instinctive, visceral, something that is as trivial vis a' vis the process of breathing itself. Whenever a newcomer(a viewer that is) starts to feel the heat of the premiership, the natural instincts drive his loyalty towards the stronger teams having good players. For me, an Indian by origin, who had all the options to choose from, chose to be a partisan of Manchester United F.C. only because it had the great names like David Beckham,Ruud Van Nistelrooy and the legendry Roy Keane. Manchester United is not a team that was built in a day. ManU like other great teams has a history to be proud of. It took a couple of months for the interest to metamorphose into passion.
The most challenging part vis a' vis managing a football team is to build the team. Manchester United, Arsenal,etc. are already have elite ranked players. The job of managers of the teams who come in place of the relegated teams are perhaps the most difficult. They are not rich clubs. Perhaps their full year’s tranfer budget is less than a week’s wage budget of a rich team like Chelsea. Managing such teams is a challenge. Even teams like ManU and Arsenal have budget restraints.
Ever since Chelsea was bought by Roman Abramovich for 60 million pounds in 2003, the clubs fortune has changed. The club’s gaffer has invested over 300 million dollars and has incurred losses of 100 million dollars to the club. As far as Mr. Abramovich is concerned, it is no more than buying his children peanuts on a hang out. So forget the fact that Jose Mourinho is no businessman. The prodigal gaffer has time n’ time again created new records in the transfer market. The Andriy Shevchenko transfer has topped all EPL records at 30 million pounds. No other manager in the world will pay 30 million pounds for a 29 year old striker. Then again, with Ricardo Carvalho -27 million dollars, Essien- 24 million pounds, etc. and there are records still to be broken. There is nothing in the transfer market that money cannot buy, for everything else there is Mr. Roman Abramovich.
The real fans of football want to watch good football. We want to watch players who have a talent to develop into world class players. But what happens when a talent goes in a team where it is not recognised.Chelsea, undoubtedly, has one of the most deadliest squads in the world. But in the process what it is doing is keeping talented players away from the field. An epitome of the same is Shaun Wright Phillips. One of the main reasons of his exclusion from the England world cup squad is because Sir Sven Goran didnt have enough of his on field performances to look at.
Having the world’s best coaches to teach the world’s best talents, having the world’s best scouts to find the world’s best raw talents.Keeping world class players at every position and for also for the back up positions of the team doesnt test the manager’s skills.All you have to do is let them out in the field and there is always a very low probability that they’ ll loose. Even a ten year old can manage a team like that.
So where does Jose Mourinho come in…??? The prodigal gaffer!!!All in all, for a team like Chelsea,whose wage budget exceeds many team’s transfer budget,it is not the manager but the perennial river Moolah flowing that manages and wins matches.
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