Only One Showman Allowed at Chelsea

Life can be very confusing, even for a top footballer. Consider this. Your club is running away with the premiership, even as early as January. Personally, you’re having a wonderful season, both in the premiership and in the England team. Your game has improved out of all recognition. You’re fitter, stronger and more competitive. You know what your job is and for the first time in your career, you feel that you’re really making full use of your ability. The boss has lavished generous praise upon you and you’re on top of the world.

Then suddenly, your confidence is shattered. The manager has chosen to castigate you publicly for ‘showboating’ and the television and written press are full of it. The ‘flicks and tricks’ have to stop and if they don’t, you’re out. And to top it all, you can’t play in the next game (which happens to be at your previous club) because you’re suspended.

Spare a thought for Joe Cole, because as well as being suspended he might be feeling a little confused, and who could blame him?

Unfortunately, this is an episode which tells us much more about Jose Mourinho than it does about his midfielder. To begin with, nobody can doubt that the development of Cole’s game owes much to the thoroughness, meticulous preparation and eye for detail which have become Mourinho’s hallmarks, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that the manager’s obsession with pragmatic efficiency is having a detrimental effect upon the team and some players in particular.

To put it bluntly, Mourinho seems to be uncomfortable with flair players. And if you doubt that, ask yourself how many of them he has brought to the club. Not Cole. Not Duff. Not Robben. Their very presence is down to Claudio Ranieri, who has never received the credit he deserves for what he achieved at Chelsea. Mourinho signings are different. Big strong guys like Drogba and Essien. Players who will play to a plan, fight for the cause, come to heel. Because the manager, as he has made clear, does not allow the word ‘entertainment’ in his football vocabulary and as a showman the last thing he wants to see is a player who might take the spotlight away from him.

Is that what makes him so special?

Chelsea are running away with the league, but with their resources they could do so much more. They have the ability to entertain, to play exciting, stimulating football, full of flair and spontaneity, to achieve popularity beyond their own fan base.

But first the manager must make a special effort to develop his own game.

He could start by loosening the shackles a bit.