On the day that Liverpool sacked manager Brendan Rodgers, despite them being four points ahead of Chelsea in the table, the Chelsea board have issued their manager Jose Mourinho a stay of execution by deciding not to fire him at a board meeting on Sunday.
Instead he has been given the support of the board as they attempt to turn their season around. Despite Roman Abramovich being furious at Chelsea’s current form, the newspapers are reporting that there is no immediate danger of Mourinho losing his job.
The Chelsea owner knows that Mourinho would never return to the club for a third time and doesn’t want to make a snap decision he will later regret.
Abramovich had to pay £18m to Mourinho when he ended his first spell back in September 2007 following a series of disagreements.
The owner also realises that this current run of results is the worst period of Mourinho’s illustrious career, something the Portuguese acknowledged himself in a press conference on Friday.
Crucially Mourinho got the unexpected backing of captain John Terry after the 3-1 home defeat to Southampton on Saturday. Terry has suffered as much as anyone from Mourinho’s changes to the team, having been left out of the biggest games recently, but the Chelsea captain returned for the defeat against Southampton, a defeat that left them 16th in the table, with only eight points from the same number of games.
“We are not in the familiar position we are normally in,” Terry said on Chelsea’s official website.
“We find ourselves in it and it is down to the group of players and the manager to get ourselves out of it and we must do that very soon. We need to be hungry like we were.
“We are suffering a bit of late but we have big characters in the dressing room and we will remain together along with the manager and get ourselves out of this,” he added.
After Saturday’s game Mourinho insisted he was the best manager for Chelsea and his captain backed him up.
“We have the best manager who we remain behind and we remain together,” said Terry.
“That is what you do in tough circumstances. I have been here a long time and I have seen managers come and go and if anyone is going to get us out of this hole it is going to be Jose Mourinho.”
