This evening in the Football Transfer Tavern, a few of our neutrals are wondering just what Roman Abramovich is making of the Blues’ dour start to the Premier League this 2015/16 campaign and what exactly is running through his head right now.
Following the Blues winning their fourth Premier League title in the modern era last season in 2014/15, all the talk was surrounding Jose Mourinho doing something completely different by remaining with the Blues and seeing out a long dynasty in which his Chelsea team dominated English football for years to come.
This was of course everything we were expecting given the fact Mourinho’s men won the Premier League at a canter last season with the Blues looking like they had the answers for pretty much every occasion bar just three defeats away at Newcastle United, Tottenham and West Bromwich Albion with the latter result coming after the title was secured.
Fast forward just four months however and Chelsea have endured their worst start to a Premier League season since 1998 with nobody really being able to put their finger on just why Mourinho’s men have suffered a dramatic fall from grace.
While nobody could think for one second that Abramovich is ready to let the axe fall on Mourinho given the sheer fact that Jose is well, Jose and the Special One at that, nobody at the club can be enjoying their current fortunes and it’s just got everybody thinking – what about life after Mourinho?
With nobody being able to put a date on when Mourinho will end his second spell in charge of the Blues, we’re working a little ahead of schedule here while devising a list of five managers who could eventually end up succeeding the Special One at Stamford Bridge.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 managers who could replace Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.
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Diego Simeone
If you look around world football right now, there is only really one other manager at the elite level who champions a park the bus-type strategy in the same way that Jose Mourinho and Chelsea do and that man is Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone.
‘Cholo’ has been an absolute revelation in the Atleti hotseat since earning the role back in 2011 helping the Spanish capital club to a surprise La Liga title triumph in 2013/14 to break the dominance of Barcelona and Real Madrid, not to mention scooping the UEFA Europa League in 2011/12, the UEFA Super Cup in 2012, the Copa del Rey in 2012/13 and the Supercopa de Espana in 2014.
An extremely charismatic character to boot, Simeone seems somebody that has the passion and resilience to manage an incredibly expectant outfit such as the Blues who have fiery characters such as Diego Costa whom the Argentine managed of course back in his time at the Vicente Calderon.
What’s more, Simeone is also a perfect fit for Chelsea given the fact their supporters often get whipped up into an us versus the world-like mentality when outsiders criticise their playing style and nobody enjoys this point more than Jose Mourinho.
Simeone is somebody like Mourinho who will not entertain any outside influences, sticking by his principles while living and dying by them.
Laurent Blanc
While Simeone seems like a good fit for Chelsea in regards to his charisma and tactics, somebody else who has proved successful while also spending big money just like the Blues is Paris Saint-Germain boss Laurent Blanc.
Enjoying his time as a domestic manager with PSG far more than his short-lived spell managing the French national side, Blanc has won two back-to-back Ligue 1 titles in 2013/14 and 2014/15 in his time at the Parc Des Princes while also winning the Coupe de France last season, the Coupe de la Ligue last season and in 2013/14, and the Trophee des Champions for the last three seasons.
Still yet to make any inroads into getting to the very latter stages of the Champions League, Chelsea supporters ultimately crave somebody who can emulate the feat achieved by Roberto Di Matteo yet again.
That said, Blanc’s side did knock the Blues out with a fantastic performance last term while the French champions are building their kudos in the competition each and every year.
Having been entrusted with signing world class stars such as Edinson Cavani and Thiago Silva via backing from the Qatar Investment Authority to boot, Blanc would be in a similar position at Chelsea where Roman Abramovich’s millions can pretty much buy anybody on the planet bar Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi!
Joachim Low
For many football supporters, they may not know that Germany boss Joachim Low enjoyed a 10-year spell in charge of numerous club sides including Stuttgart and Fenerbahce prior to taking an initial assistant manager’s role with Die Mannschaft ahead of becoming their full-time boss in 2006.
Having won the World Cup in Brazil last summer and looking the real deal in all the other tournaments in the time since his appointment, Low has become respected as one of the best and most recognisable international managers in the game.
Seemingly in charge of Germany for as long as he wants to be at the moment, it would take some compensation package to approach him for club management but perhaps he’d be a sought-after option if Jose Mourinho didn’t end up staying for as long as he intended to in his second Stamford Bridge tenure.
The suitability of Low is the fact that he’s now overseen a sustained period in charge of one team while ensuring a successful mix of elder and more youthful players in all of his Germany squads.
You only have to look at the Germany roster at the moment to see that elder statesmen such as Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mats Hummels remain in the team while a plethora of young talents such as Emre Can, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin Volland are being added to the mix.
Mourinho himself has had to mix experience and youth in his time at the Blues and as we are seeing at the moment, Kurt Zouma is being selected over John Terry.
In this way, Low is somebody who would have bags of experience in knowing when the time is right to replace ageing legs with more youthful ones.
Luis Enrique
Looking back, it’s crazy to think that Luis Enrique was under intense scrutiny over his position as coach at Barcelona midway through last season considering their former player went on to achieve the treble with Barca come the end of 2014/15.
Sticking two fingers up to all of his doubters, there are those that will of course claim winning the treble is that much more possible when you have Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi in your armoury but that said, a manager must still manage and he more than proved himself to the ever expectant Catalan faithful.
We all know that Pep Guardiola previously rejected the opportunity to manage Chelsea with the former Barcelona boss then choosing to manage Bayern Munich so maybe Luis Enrique is cut from a different cloth as his own man once his illustrious spell in charge of the La Liga giants comes to an end.
Guardiola was reported to be concerned over the hire and fire-type ways of Abramovich during their meeting and while you could imagine Enrique may similarly be wary, you never know entirely.
If Enrique continues to dominate Spanish football while playing a style of football both the world and Abramovich loves and would like to more readily emulate at Stamford Bridge, perhaps the Russian owner will have his eyes on the 45-year-old post-Jose Mourinho.
Massimiliano Allegri
The last man on our shortlist is Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri who like Luis Enrique, has had his fair share doubters but the similarity again here is that he’s proved them wrong and silenced them while delivering a Serie A league title to the Turin giants after Antonio Conte’s popular spell in charge.
Winning Serie A last season in addition to winning the Coppa Italia as well, we musn’t forget that Allegri’s Juve side also reached the Champions League Final having knocked out Real Madrid so his pedigree is incredibly good for somebody who’s first big job (at AC Milan) only came back in 2010.
Still relatively young at 48 to boot, Allegri has plenty of time left in management and is one of those bosses who had proved he can manage big personalities in the game such as Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Pirlo and of course Paul Pogba.
Those big personalities will be at Stamford Bridge too given Chelsea’s contemporary status as an elite club and you can imagine that if Jose Mourinho departed West London tomorrow, Allegri would be somebody who’d be on Roman Abramovich’s managerial replacement list.
