One love (Musings on Chelsea fans' blame game)

Updated 13 Mar. 2016

Chelsea FC exited the UEFA Champions League 9 March and among some fans the blame game is on, or rather, continues. Blame has been fan norm since Chelsea's play this year was shown to be far from the excellence it was in 2014-15 when we won the Premier League, indeed led from start to finish. 
Today (12 March) we exited the FA Cup and blame reached a fever pitch. I need to get this off my chest while fresh. Many, perhaps most, Chelsea fans will disagree but this is how I see it.

Please keep in mind that I grew to respect José Mourinho but eventually that eroded as I watched his poor decisions and eventual crass manipulation to preserve his reputation. 

WHO IS BLAMED

• Michael Emenalo, CFC Technical Director

• He was widely trashed after José Mourinho was fired and Emanalo spoke of "palpable discord" between José and the players and referred to José as 'the individual'. Emenalo haters, often longtime Chelsea fans, like to mention he has zero qualifications, coached a girl's club, and imply he has the job only because he's pal of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner since 2003.
• Emenalo is blamed for not recruiting wisely. 
• Some 'fair and balanced' fans use the Twitter hashtag #EmenaloOUT. Check it out with a Twitter search. Slightly less hateful than #RafaOut? 

• Chelsea's Board of Directors, who presumably want the club to be winners but who many fans currently diss as incompetent. Fans didn't say this in earlier years when Chelsea won PL titles, and the UCL. Miraculously in space of one year, BOD are sh*t. 
• Did José have no input into signings? Was he just a poodle to Emenalo and the Board's decisions? Hard to believe.

• Specific Chelsea players, who it is claimed would not play for José and 'betrayed' him (José's own word). José played the blame game to protect his image as a great manager.

• Chief culprits are players whose form dropped dramatically compared to last year, including
• Diego Costa (20 PL goals 2014-15; 11 PL goals to date)
• Eden Hazard (14 PL goals 2014-15; 0 PL goals to date)

• Chelsea players in general (with one exception*), because they are deemed to lack club loyalty. You know the drill, score a goal and pound the club crest on your jersey. Indicates you are loyal to and devoted to your club. Pretty phony, given most players today are hired guns who play for several big businesses (clubs) over their careers.

• *Exception is John Terry - Chelsea's Captain, Leader, Legend, who's been with the club from a young age, indeed more than half his life. When he taps the CFC crest, you know it means something.

WHO'S NOT BLAMED - José  Mourinho
Few longtime fans blame Mourinho who took Chelsea from PL winner to bottom of Premier League in 8 months and was fired after the club lost 9 of 16 PL games. José is the 'teflon manager', in same category as Jesus Christ or an infallible Pope to adoring fans. José rightly has huge deposits in fan's goodwill bank for his 3 PL wins.

The case for why José played a role in Chelsea's decline
(1) José's management style exhausts players after 2-3 years. Sooner rather than later millionaire players will say enough, I don't need this cynical manipulation. Players play for intrinsic reasons like love of the game and personal pride. Suspect the brighter among them resent José's mind games, see them for what they are, and naturally rebel.  

Takes a big personality to maintain control, keep the respect of players, adopt to changing circumstances, and develop youth. José Mourinho is an Alex Ferguson wannabee but his record shows he  lacks whatever it takes to manage a club for more than a few years. For interest:

• Ferguson's formula

(2) José prefers defense to freewheeling offense. José's preferred style of play tends to stifle creative players, especially midfielders used to pressing forward on the hunt for goals. For example, José couldn't let Juan Mata  - Chelsea's 2 time POTY  - be Juan Mata. Most fans grieved Mata's sale to Man United, but few criticized José for the loss. The magic of Mata-Hazard-Oscar was lost forever.

(3) José did not give Chelsea's young players (long list) a chance to shine, prove their worth. Why? Likely because to validate his genius as the 'special one', he needed wins now. Always playing the first squad, barring injuries, was the result. Even then, 'kids' seldom got a chance to play, gain top flight experience, prove their worth.  

(4) José was out of control, stressed and fearful for his reputation if the club lost a game, as shown by his treatment of Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn. Only Eva had guts to call him on it, demand an apology. 

José quote: "I wasn't happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench you have to understand the game." Apparently, José winning takes precedence over giving medical help to a player who is on the pitch and asking for it.

At his core, José is a skilled manipulator who excels at obscuring his role in creating problems. He's an expert at the blame game. His main schtick is to blame referees and encourage fans to see the entire world as against us. As if Chelsea is so important that the entire Premier League - referees, referee association, FA -  would conspire to keep us down. Really?

He's done this act for years and it's worked well until senior management cottons on that there's dissension in the ranks and is forced to jettison him for the good of the club.

WHAT'S NOT BLAMED - Circumstance/Chance
Few Chelsea fans blame circumstance and chance. But Chelsea had many key players injured this year, including Gary Cahill, Diego Costa, Radamel Falcao, Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matić, Oscar, Loïc Rémy, John Terry, and Kurt Zouma.

Besides losing those players, injuries meant  that healthy substitutes were tossed into games lacking experience (because José gave them none to little) and key players like Willian often played exhausted. 

Players often lose form from year to year. Just a few of many:

• Papiss Cisse, Newcastle United
• Radamel Falcao, Man United
• Wayne Rooney, Man United
• Roberta Soldado, Tottenham Hotspurs
• Fernando Torres, Chelsea
• Thomas Vermaelen, Arsenal

Were all these players dogging it, out to get the manager fired? Or just struggling with circumstances that meant they lost their magic?

WHAT'S NOT BLAMED - Top players shun Chelsea
Many top players have not opted for Chelsea in recent years. Maybe they are happy where they are but maybe some are not keen to join Chelsea, even under genius manager José. 

BLAME GAME
In sports, as in life, some people prefer the blame game as opposed to examining themselves and those dear to them. To some fans, if something goes wrong, someone must be identified and blamed. The reasoning is as follows:

• Those who I support are never responsible else I will be diminished as a savvy fan who knows it all.
• When folks play the blame game, they often engage in irrational thinking to justify blaming others. 
• For example, why in hell's name would Chelsea players want to sabotage the club and their reputations and future earnings by choosing to become losers - to say nothing of lowering their own feelings of self worth - all to cost José his job? Does not compute. 

If that were true, then following José's exit, form would miraculously reappear. It hasn't.

Also, the blame game crowd aren't satisfied with 'what players did was wrong.' Instead, players become lesser beings, unworthy of respect. It's personal and they are demonized as cretins who destroyed both José  and the fans' dreams of eternal Chelsea glory under José. 

BOTTOM LINE
What gets me most is Chelsea fans who put it all, or mostly all, down to lazy, pampered rich players betraying Gawd Almight, José.

Mourinho is a multi-millionaire who frequents Victoria Secrets fashion shows and GQ awards. With this lifestyle, he's interested in protecting his brand and earning power and expertly practices the blame game to do so. Any footie manager's decisions and actions are NOT infallible. 

To me, the players did NOT deliberately sabotage Chelsea. Which is not to say that José did not p*ss some of them off with cynical mind games and manipulation. Plus he creates unrelenting stress to perform perfectly, always. But to blame Chelsea's 2015-16 season on player sabotage is nuts. Players too want to protect their pride, brand and earning power. 

Sometimes bad things happen for complex, interrelated causes, not simplistic reasons like 'the players did it because beloved José could never be responsible.' Sort of akin to 'the dog ate my homework' vs admitting I, and my hero José, are responsible. 

Seems José's responsible for nothing when a club loses but gets credit for everything when it wins. 

Folks like simple explanations but simple seldom conforms to reality. 

Football clubs are big businesses where players are mere commodities to be bought and sold. To think of players as loyal souls who play their hearts out for a big business that they have no history with, that they know will dump them sooner or later, is deluded. Today most, indeed almost all, play for several clubs over a career.

In my view, several factors played a role to a varying extent in Chelsea's unprecedented fall from PL champs to mid-table ordinary in 2015-16. In particular: 

1. José Mourinho's management style, his tendency to manipulate players (always) and blame them for losing (once losing becomes the norm - otherwise he plays the role of I'll take the heat for the odd loss), and his failure to develop Chelsea's young players by giving them adequate game time. 

• Is José to blame? Not really. He did what was best for José and no doubt what he thought was best for Chelsea. Was he a factor in the rapid decline? Had to be a major factor. He was 'the boss' running the club day-to-day, preparing and motivating the players, developing tactics.

 2. Circumstance/chance - injuries, loss of form by key players. Yes, poop happens.

3. Emanalo, Board of Directors and José too (because he must have had some say) in failing to recruit top players for key positions. 

Many top players are happy where they are and a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless a significant outside force acts on it (Newton's First Law of Motion). Chelsea is not a significant outside force. Chelsea club history with Roman in charge reeks of instability. The number of managers is the canary in the coal mine. Top players shun Chelsea for good reason. 

For Fun
Having spent 6 months bumming around Jamaica, I'm a reggae and Bob Marley fan. This ditty expresses how I feel about Chelsea. And by implication, what I think about Chelsea fans who diss the club and its players and feel the need to play the blame game. How about feeling the 'one love' for our club and players? Okay to love José too, but he's not the 'one love', my fellow fans. 

• One love (Bob Marley)