After shelving the Premier League trophy last season, Chelsea has been a wonderful mess for the entirety of the 2015-16 season. They continued their glorious skid with a 2-1 loss to Leicester City on Monday, leaving them at 16th place, just two places clear of the relegation zone. Saying “16th place Chelsea” aloud to yourself should tickle you, provided you can recall their annoying dominance of just less than a year ago.
Mourinho’s been in the hot seat for quite some time and with this loss his firing is a virtual certainty, so he did what anyone does when they’re about to be out of a job. Say nuts to dignity and lash out at anything in arm-swinging length.
First, he went after Eden Hazard, whom he was once so fond of and just last year, deigned to be on the same level as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi (which was absolute nonsense). Hazard left the game early after a hard tackle, and Mourinho got some backhanded comments in about it after the game.
“In 10 seconds [Hazard] made the decision himself,” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “[The injury] must be something important. His first reaction was ‘I can’t’ and his second reaction was ‘I want to try’, then he goes on the pitch and he couldn’t do it.”
(Paul Ellis / AFP / Getty Images)
When Mourinho was prodded about the two (pretty good) goals from Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, Mourinho belly-ached about his preparative work being “betrayed” by the lack of enthusiasm from his players. “All last season I did phenomenal work and I brought them to a level that is not their level,” said Mourinho. “It was more than they really are.”
He’s not totally wrong there. Cesar Azpilicueta has been fried, baked, broiled, and barbecued by just about every pacy winger in the league now. His boots might actually be made of cement. Diego Costa has three goals to his name this season. He had more than twice that many at this same time last year.
(Paul Ellis / AFP / Getty Images)
Mourinho being upset with Hazard for his possible malingering makes sense, and Chelsea’s standard of soccer is patently worse than it was last year. But what was really ridiculous – and also perfectly illustrates the fact that Mourinho lacks the capacity for shame – was how Mourinho went after the Leicester City ballboys, accusing them of time-wasting late on.
Mourinho claims Leicester's ball boys were "a disgrace to the Premier League" (!!) but he doesn't want this to overshadow Leicester win (!!)
— Oliver Kay (@OliverKayTimes) December 14, 2015
Mourinho on Leicester's time-wasting: "The ballboys, they were amazing too."
— Joshua Robinson (@JoshRobinson23) December 14, 2015
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
At the very least, Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri came to the defense of his ballboys, because being a ballboy is already a thankless job and they shouldn’t have to deal with all of that misplaced aggression.
Ranieri: "Kante is amazing. He recovers all the balls, in this stadium, the other stadiums, everywhere."
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) December 14, 2015
Related:
It's time for Chelsea to fire Jose Mourinho
02 Nov