Is power at the top simply going to handicap Chelsea and Man City?
Jose Mourinho has been appointed Chelsea manager and the decision on who will be the new Manchester City boss is expected to equally surprise few people, with the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini expected within a matter of days. Both clubs have sky high expectations of their men, but is the desperation for control from the owners at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge going to handicap their men at the helm?
Mourinho walks into a situation where Abramovich has almost certainly looked to conduct his own business before the Portuguese maestro re-emerged in West London. The negotiations to bring in Andre Schurrle from Bayer Leverkusen are an ominous for the former Real Madrid boss, as the Russian owner looks set to once again meddle in affairs.
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There is a sigh of disapproval from supporters when the owners try and play football manager in real life, but the Blues fans have come to accept the need their owner has to be the centre of attention. Jose Mourinho may have been successful in his last stint at Stamford Bridge but such is the fickle nature of football that he comes back to the Premier League on the back foot. One mediocre season and several Spanish press fall outs last campaign means that Abramovich is holding the cards, in what is set to become yet another awkward marriage of personalities. They say never go back into bed with your ex and Mourinho could find out why his last stint ended in such a messy divorce.
In Manchester there is a similar desire for Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Sheikh Mansour to send out a message that they are in charge at Man City. When they appointed Roberto Mancini, there was an awareness that Man City were on the cusp of greatness but they still hadn’t reached the pinnacle of the Premier League. They needed the magic touches and World Class players added to the nucleus of a strong squad to really force themselves into contention.
There was an initial patience with Mancini, but as soon as the Premier League was achieved, greed took over. There was an acute awareness from the owners that they had built a squad full of superb footballers and at the end of last campaign they decided they no longer had to appease the temperament of their passionate Italian boss. They require a head coach who has far less control than Mancini did. The insistence of the former Inter Milan boss upon his own medical treatments and his clear disregard for future planning, as well as his soft spot for the erratic Mario Balotelli, was never in line with the common sense approach that they want to form at the Etihad.
This is not a slight on the managerial abilities of Mourinho or Pellegrini. The Premier League is becoming far more results and business inclined. The opportunity these two managers will have to stamp their personality on their sides will be based upon whether they achieve their objectives. There is no room for mitigating factors and whilst both managers have demonstrated their poise and skill to earn themselves the hot seats at their respective new clubs, this has become irrelevant. The players are far more savvy of their position than they once were, and you have to wonder if either La Liga boss can achieve cohesion at their clubs. Mourinho has freely admitted that the ethics of the modern footballer has changed as they have no respect for authority.
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Jose Mourinho especially, is a manager who feels it is pivotal to win over his dressing room and have emotional connections with his players Can he achieve this once more at Chelsea? Will the players have such beaming confidence in their manager if they suffer yet another tricky November?. As the current Premier League manager list illustrates, not one manager is 100% safe in their job. Arsene Wenger is in an extremely tenuous position despite being the longest serving manager the league has to offer, this is a dangerous sign for any manager that enters the pressure cooker of the Premier League.
The heat has been raised a few notches with the TV money increasing once again and there has to be a concern that the pendulum has swung in favour of a new business model, which has no place for a long term managerial strategy. The stakes are so high that it would be no shock if Man City and Chelsea have rotated their managers before the season is out. There will be very little sympathy for either boss, because of the huge opportunity they will have to win the Premier League and the astronomical contracts they will be given from their employers in the hope they succeed. Do they really have a chance?