Gray and Keys: Mou's Chelsea exit was inevitable

Sport360 staff 05:27 19/12/2015
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  • Bowing out: Jose Mourinho.

    Jose Mourinho’s dismissal didn’t come as a shock to Andy Gray and Richard Keys, who front beIN Sports’ Premier League coverage, but was it the right decision?

    Andy Gray: The Premier League will be a poorer place without Jose Mourinho. We will miss him, big time. It was a culmination of things that cost him job, although his post-match interview after being beaten by Leicester was his death knell.

    It started before the season finished last year when, in April, he gave Roman Abramovich a list of the players he wanted and didn’t get one of them.

    Then they came back too late for pre-season this year and were off the pace from the start, there was the incident with the doctor, the dropping of John Terry so publicly, and the general slagging off of players like Eden Hazard, Branislav Ivanovic, Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa which he never did the first time he was at Chelsea.

    So although I don’t believe he lost the entire dressing room, there were clearly problems with some big players which is probably the main reason he has gone.

    He looks to me like a guy who hasn’t found any answers, his best players haven’t responded to his cajoling and I think it reached a stage where he said, ‘you know what, if they don’t care then why should I’, and I think he will be glad to be out of it. Is it Chelsea’s loss that he has gone?

    Well, if I look at Mourinho and I look at the world of football and ask myself who is out there who is going to make things happen for Chelsea, once Gus Hiddink’s interim stint is finished, I am struggling. Maybe Pep Guardiola or Carlo Ancelotti but neither of those two are going to go to Stamford Bridge.

    I understand why Diego Simeone is being linked with the club but if they think Mourinho ran roughshod over players and officials and upset people, my God, wait until this guy gets there and finds himself under a bit of pressure in the Premier League. He is a volatile character and probably far worse than Mourinho when you talk about abrasive characters.

    So Chelsea have lost one the best managers in their history and one of the top coaches in world football. They may feel they are better for it, but I am not so sure in the long run that will prove to be the case and it could turn out to be a mistake and backfire.

    Having said that, over the last 10 years they have had coach, after coach and it hasn’t stopped them winning trophies but that has mainly been down to their players. And if their recruitment doesn’t improve, no matter who they get in, they won’t get much joy out of the current squad of players.

    As for Mourinho, I think he will head back to Real Madrid and some are speculating about Manchester United, although I am not entirely convinced that will happen, no matter how much he covets that job.

    Saturday’s game against Sunderland is fascinating because if the players turn it on and get a great result, what is that going to say to the fans? That they have been cheating them over the past few months by not performing for Mourinho? It’s a strange one.

    I do expect a response from the players but Sam Allardyce’s team will make life really difficult for them. 1-0. 

    Richard Keys: The players wanted him out, I am convinced that he wanted out and, frankly, I am surprised it took so long. I’m being told there is no doubt he will go back to Real Madrid and it could be as early as the restart after the winter break, but as Andy says, Manchester United are also, inevitably, being put into the mix.

    Everybody is now saying Chelsea have got to find stability. Why? They have had a succession of coaches in the last 10 years and won everything. They are the antithesis of stability.

    There are so many people pulling in so many different directions, and although it appear to work when it comes to winning trophies, the fact they have had so many coaches over a short period of time tells you something.

    As for his replacement I can’t imagine Simeone wouldn’t want to come here and manage in the Premier League, so he is probably the one. Guardiola won’t want it. He likes serenity and there’s none of that at Chelsea.

    As for Saturday, I sort of agree with Andy, but Sunderland are no pushovers under Allardyce and although Chelsea might well turn it on, I’m going 1-1.

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