Former Blues manager Andre Villas Boas has spoken of how surprised he was when finding out that owner Roman Abramovich had opted to sack Jose Mourinho, who was the club’s ‘most successful and dearest’ coach. The fellow Portugese boss went on to state that the riddance of Mourinho proved that the Russian owner hasn’t changed his tactics.
Last December, Abramovich and the Chelsea hierarchy decided to sack Mourinho following the worst start to a season in the club’s history since 1978-79, only six months after the former Porto, Inter and Real Madrid had led the West London side to Premier League success.
Whilst the going was getting tough at the start of this current season, Abramovich had given Mourinho his public backing, with the manager adamant every time he was asked that he wouldn’t be getting the sack, and he was here to stay. The backing that the Russian owner had given was the first of his kind at Chelsea, with it never been heard of before at Chelsea. However, results to follow weren’t up to scratch, and Mourinho was relieved of his duties and replaced by Guus Hiddink on an interim basis, with it not being the first time the Dutchman has come in on a temporary role.
Villas Boas, who was sacked by Chelsea in 2012 after shambolic form in the league and then being thrashed by Napoli in the Champions League before a defeat at the Hawthorns against West Brom, has spoken about the Mourinho sacking. Villas Boas himself didn’t last a year at the club, and feels Mourinho didn’t deserve to lose his job. He went on to add that he thought it was ‘incredible’ that Chelsea decided to get rid of their best ever manager.
The only thing that has been quite incredible to see is that it was applied to everybody. It was applied for their dearest coach and their most successful coach.
So in the end, we have seen nothing different. Roman has sacked basically every coach he had and is no different – it happened even to the best.
The same criteria he applied to me, to Rafa Benitez and for all the other coaches, he has applied to Jose as well. And it’s [now] a new chapter.
