Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho makes great copy. Love him or hate him, he certainly is an entertaining and intriguing character. Following a week in which The Special One was at the center of a major media circus (the club medical staff storyline, more on that here) Mourinho took “credit” for the Premier League’s ramped up spending spree this summer.
According to a story in The Observer today, “Jose Mourinho believes Chelsea’s title rivals have splashed out on new players this summer in a frantic attempt to make up ground on the champions.” The Sunday Mirror has a very similar story too. Last month he made the pot calling the kettle black comments about teams trying to buy the title through exorbitant transfer spending.
Today brought a very big statement 3-0 win for Manchester City over Chelsea. Through the first two games, the citizens are five points clear of the blues, with Chelsea taking just one point from their first two. Rumors of City’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, as a record crowd at The Etihad witnessed what kind of potential the home side still has.
Of course, it’s just two games, it’s extremely early, and 5 points isn’t much of a gap at all. Almost all football pundits, including myself, picked Chelsea to win the league this year. I still think they will, it’s just that it may take them longer this season to pull away from everybody else.
Mourinho says his players will not reach peak physical condition until September after a tough pre-season. It’s true that Chelsea did have a more rigorous travel schedule and tougher opponents in the preseason than most clubs, but it’s still preseason. How tough can preseason really be, when you consider that all the games are just exhibitions?
For most of the preseason, all the Chelsea and Mourinho headlines pertained to the manager expressing his candid and controversial opinion.
In June, Mourinho hit back at critics of Chelsea’s style of play and branded rival coaches ‘stupid’ for not copying his counter-attacking tactics. In July, the self-proclaimed Special One ripped Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger and Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini to pieces during a pre-season press conference in the United States. Then there was the Wenger handshake in the FA Cup and well, you get the idea.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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