Chelsea confirmed on Thursday the club had fired Jose Mourinho after losing nine of his first 16 league games this season. Despite winning the Premier League relatively easily last season, Chelsea are lurking near the relegation zone and a split has opened up between the manager and the rest of the team, with Mourinho’s even going so far as to say the players have “betrayed” him.
Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have today parted company by mutual consent. https://t.co/YYJaxxdE36
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 17, 2015
Chelsea will probably install an interen manager for the rest of the season, but in the meantime, here are some of the leading candidates for when they decide on a more permanent option.
1. Guus Hiddink
(AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
Hiddink was employed by Chelsea as a caretaker manager in 2009 and did quite well — reaching the Champions League semi-final and winning the FA Cup — and looks to be the man who will step in once again this time around. At 69-years-old he’s an unlikely long-term appointment, but if he lands the interim job and excels in it like he did last time, he’ll make a strong case for himself.
2. Juande Ramos
EPA
Another manager who would likely need to excel as an interim before landing the job full-time, Ramos wouldn’t be welcomed by Chelsea fans following his brief (and relatively unspectacular) spell at rivals Tottenham. But what Ramos has going for him is his close relationship with the club’s Director of Football, Michael Emenalo.
3. Pep Guardiola
Patrik Stollarz/AFP
Pep is the dream candidate. But even though he’s likely to leave his current club this summer, he probably won’t end up in London. He’s had the opportunity to come to Chelsea before but has never been interested, always opting instead for clubs with more history and stability — something Chelsea can’t offer.
4. Brendan Rodgers
Alex Morton/Reuters
Chelsea might catch some heat for this appointment considering the unflattering circumstances in which he left Liverpool, but Rodgers came up through the coaching ranks at Chelsea, and the good work he did en route to Liverpool almost winning the league in 2014 shouldn’t be forgotten.
5. Antonio Conte
(EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Antonio Conte did a good job at Juventus and he helped midfielder Paul Pogba — a longtime Chelsea target — flower into one of the best players in Europe. Very astute tactically but he’s currently managing the Italian national team, so he likely wouldn’t want to join Chelsea until after the European Championships next summer.
6. Diego Simeone
Alex Livesey/Getty Images
He’s done amazing things at Atletico Madrid and if owner Roman Abramovich is looking for a continuation of the Mourinho-endorsed counterattacking style, Simeone would be the best fit. He’d probably be unlikely to leave Atletico until the end of the season, though.
7. Mauricio Pochettino
(TOFIK BABAYEV/AFP/Getty Images)
Pochettino has done some exciting things at Tottenham and has proven himself a young, talented manager. He’s known to be an ambitious manager, but it would be a little dicey to maneuver a move away from Tottenham to go to London rivals Chelsea, and if he guides Spurs into the Champions League next season, he might not even want to.
8. Ronald Koeman
Photo via Tim Ireland/AP
Koeman was a slightly surprising appointment for Southampton but he’s done exceedingly well there, and with experience managing at the very highest level in both Holland and Spain, he seems well-suited for a big job like Chelsea. He’d probably jump at the chance and Chelsea would be open to it, but he’d be an unlikely first choice.
9. Carlo Ancelotti
(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
The one that got away. Ancelotti was the only other Chelsea manager aside from Jose Mourinho to win the Premier League trophy under Abramovich, and he was harshly fired by the Russian after a trophyless campaign the following season. The club should have never fired him in the first place, and with a move to Bayern Munich looking increasingly likely for Carlo, a reunion probably isn’t going to happen.
10. Fabio Capello
Russia coach Fabio Capello (Reuters)
Capello enjoys a good relationship with Chelsea captain John Terry, who he managed for England, but with Terry’s career winding-down and Capello’s reputation as a strict disciplinarian, it’d probably be a bad fit for both parties.
11. Joachim Loew
The 55-year-old Loew has been an outstanding manager for Germany, guiding the team to a World Cup victory in 2014. But by all accounts he appears happy at the helm there, and besides, international management is an entirely different animal than running a big club like Chelsea. There’d be a lot of unknowns.
12. Thomas Tuchel
(PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Would be a surprising appointment to say the least, but he’s a young and talented tactician. It would be a step-up but he’s done some very good work with Borussia Dortmund this season, so sooner or later, it won’t be a surprise to see him at a club like Chelsea one day.
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