'Dear Mr. Abramovich,
By now you know that you made a grave error in sacking Chelsea`s greatest ever manager.
You cannot take all the blame for reacting to the management summary that was placed in front of you: to all extents and purposes much of what was happening at the club in early December smacked of meltdown.
Now the heat of the moment has given way to the cold light of day, however, you will have been able to examine everything more closely and know in your heart of hearts that you were largely sold a bill of goods.
A couple months since Guus` arrival and the club has 'leapt` from 15th… to, er, 13th. 11 points from 8 Premiership games. Not one single solitary home Premiership win for the fans to cheer. Player after player after player admitting they had absolutely no problem with José - some even prepared to go to court to fight anyone who would say different.
Meanwhile, one of the world`s only managers anywhere near José`s level snubs you and goes to Man City, another slightly lesser manager publicly declares he wouldn't touch CFC with a barge-pole with the transfer policy José was handcuffed by and another, far lesser managerial candidate from Italy is roundly warned not to touch "sack happy" Chelsea.
In a recent article in The Guardian the excellent Jonathan Wilson said:
"…when something is not working at a club, the easiest solution is to sack the manager, who becomes a scapegoat, his slaughter symbolically absolving his people… In The Manager, Barney Ronay essentially argues that the role was invented to insulate the board of directors from blame."
Does any of that strike a chord, Mr Abramovich?
Unlike you, the Chelsea faithful - your core fan franchise - never wavered.
They desperately wanted José to stay and fight whatever disease it is that has been allowed to creep into the very foundations of CFC.
Former players, legends and managers, and even those with no association with Chelsea at all such as Sir Alex Ferguson, made it clear in the media that they felt José was the only one able to keep things together at Stamford Bridge.
Tragically, I strongly believe that those who you trusted to watch over the operations of the club during your essential peregrinations were the only ones who truly wanted José gone - and that they sacrificed CFC`s best interests for the 'benefit` of their own positions in the CFC hierarchy.
I believe these people you trusted used José`s immeasurable drive and passion - the very things that make him the world`s most effective manager - as weapons against him in a ruthless manner designed to destroy his tenure at the head of the team.
They began at the end of last season when it became clear that the team would manage to manage to clinch the Premiership title.
They knew that tweaking José`s nose at the time that he felt most full of himself as a brand new double-winner would cause maximum effect.
I wasn`t there on April 26th when a triumphant and bullish Mourinho presented Michael Emenalo with his transfer needs for the summer window, and I can only guess at the nature of the exchange.
I imagine Mr Emenalo looking over Mourinho`s list with the same cod-concerned and contemptuous expression he later employed in the video announcing the manager`s dismissal.
Did he frown and patronizingly remind José that the club was looking to redevelop the stadium and therefore had to carefully scrutinize all inessential outgoings?
Did he say that he couldn't promise anything and would have to discuss the list with his fellow board directors particularly as Chelsea had won the league by so wide a margin?
Whatever he did say, did Mr Emenalo do so in precisely the manner guaranteed to infuriate José Mourinho, a Chelsea legend in full flow expecting nothing but grateful compliance?
That would explain why what should have been a calmer and more secure-feeling Chelsea manager than ever in fact exploded onto the new season exhibiting more uncontrolled and bizarre behavior than any of us had ever before witnessed.
It would explain the awful Dr Eva outbursts, the ever more wild-eyed and incoherent post-match interviews, the increasingly Eric Cantona-esque press conferences.
For the Chelsea faithful, the fact that José chose to remain 100% loyal to you, Mr Abramovich, rather than reveal the way his hands had been tied in the transfer market is one of the many things that will bind him forever to our hearts.
(Even this weekend, when pushed by Sky News he referenced only obliquely the fact that squads need to be kept on their toes by being challenged by new players or else they become complacent.)
When he realized he was truly being denied the tools to do the job properly, loyal servant that he was José went back to the well.
Like a general under siege who had just discovered he would not be getting reinforcements he went back to his men and broke the grim reality that they all faced together: remember the end of last season, men? More of the same please!
Was there at any point an exchange, Mr Abramovich, where the manager was told that, having won the Premier league at what some regarded a relative canter, it would be ok to win with a smaller margin next time and therefore the existing squad would suffice?
Because accounting procedures don`t apply to football management, sir: if they did any old accountant could do it.
Was the manager perhaps too constipated with sheer fury at the lack of gratitude for his and his players` achievements last season to point out that anything gained last season was by an ultimately threadbare squad, everyone of whom had worked themselves to a skeleton?
And that to blithely expect to replicate similar performances yet again was to ask players to draw from a largely empty well and to disappoint fans hoping for a more expansive approach this season?
At the very least Chelsea`s superstar Eden Hazard was known to be expecting some of the pressure to be taken off him and to be allowed to develop and grow as one of Europe`s most exciting attacking forces.
You don`t need to be some kind of psychological savant to understand Hazard`s reaction on being told that he had to put his ambitions on hold and spend even more time being a defensive midfielder if not full-back than he did last season.
"Oh, and by the way Eden? We`re also not going to be adding any serious talent to make defenders have to stop ganging up on you."
How do you think that went down with one of the most sought-after players in the world and his advisors, Mr Abramovich?
And that`s just one player, sir, one player being told that far from making progress and stepping up Chelsea`s ability to compete against Europe`s finest, the whole season was to be another exhausting, nerve-shredding dogfight from day one.
We all know José Mourinho.
We all know how he will have run the gamut of emotions from anger at his betrayal through sadness for his beloved players to his inevitable re-commitment to be the best he could possibly be under the circumstances.
That re-commitment seems to have included the necessarily unorthodox decision to at least give the players more time off to recharge and prepare for what would be the toughest season they would ever face - that would explain the prolonged summer break.
. As the season got under way, it quickly became clear that while some stalwarts at the younger end such as Azpilicueta and Willian and Zouma were happy to put their heads down and continue ploughing forward for their manager, others had other ideas - as some always do in life.
In any mix of individuals there will always be the ultra-loyal few, the in-betweens and the me-me-me`s.
Results quickly exposed several issues: that irrespective of how hard you crack the whip, some donkeys will always be recalcitrant. (What about removing the whip altogether and breaking out the carrots? Well, Guus Hiddink is gleaning the 'benefits` of that right now.)
Next we discovered the obvious fact that, when tired, demotivated, under-resourced players face teams doubly-determined to knock them off their championship perch, no result whatsoever is guaranteed however lowly-seeming the opposition.
Most important to any manager is stopping and scoring goals: Mourinho quickly discovered huge issues on both fronts - issues that merely working harder would not address (which is why he had put in his list of transfers in the first place - hard not to keep returning to that critical, baffling turning point).
With the acute eye that makes him the best defensive tactician in football history, José detected serious issues in his back line - not least with John Terry`s slow return to full throttle.
I have no idea how many bricks the manager had to throw out of his pram to spur the belated pursuit of John Stones, or what passive-aggression there was around that whole process from the board.
Suffice to say, Chelsea`s belated pursuit of Stones came to nought, while we the fans had to accept that everything José wanted done to get him was done but failed nevertheless. Hmmm.
In Stones` stead came - ta-da! - Papa Djilobodji from Nantes.
Let`s assume that the amount of first team minutes (in single figures) Papy has played in a Chelsea shirt (or ever will play) reflects not only José`s enthusiasm for that particular Emenalo 'master-stroke` but also Hiddink`s, i.e. zero.
Another key calumny in this nightmare season was the relentless fire-hose of highly-paced unflattering anti-Mourinho information from someone in Chelsea that the media were showered with each and every day.
We all know that José has no time at all for the niceties of PR or appearances: you only have to attend one of his press conferences to see that he barely takes the whole thing seriously.
Relentlessly feeding the media stuff designed to embarrass the manager really is the cheapest of all cheap shots, Mr. Abramovich.
Whoever was charged with/volunteered for maintaining that barrage of poisonous gossip at CFC should be ashamed of themselves.
The aim of the poison was of course to undermine the manager, to keep the Chelsea dressing room off balance at all times, to encourage recalcitrant players to remain so, to ensure that the slightest gain was muddied or minimized, the tiniest slither of contentiousness or negativity maximized.
Players like Diego Costa on whom Mourinho so hugely relied and who was clearly missing his adopted Spain among God knows what else, were palpably harmed by the constant media barrage.
The beauty of a Mourinho team as you know, Mr Abramovich, is that it is an organic, interdependent whole that becomes considerably more than the sum of its parts (it`s why you first hired José after his 'little` Porto won the Champions League, remember?).
When that interdependence turns into a negative domino effect you have a major problem: as a depressed Costa struggled to overcome injury, fitness and dietary issues, Cesc Fabregas also suffered for lack of a fully-functioning striker to target; with Fabregas off his game, an aging Ivanovic - returning late to form and fitness like everyone else - suddenly couldn't rely on Cesc for any kind of cover and was exposed; with Ivanovic exposed, an already struggling JT was further stretched at the worst possible time; all of which stretched Matic to the point where he can now barely function.
Etc, etc, etc, etc.
It`s important to bear in mind at all times that only the manager is charged with ensuring the team performs brilliantly.
Someone like the technical director is there to help and stand behind the manager.
As a Chelsea board member the technical director must also bear in mind all kinds of other corporate issues - ground redevelopment for instance.
Above all, it`s his choice what kind of technical director he wishes to be: a kind helpful one who says way up front:
"Look José we`re in this together and we need to help each other: Roman is obsessed about finding the money for the ground and remaining within the Fair Play money cap - we may not to be able to get every single player we target this summer. Let`s try to figure out together."
Or an obstructive one who says,
"These transfers won`t fly. It`s more than my job`s worth to back you in front of Roman. Yer on yer own."
In the video where Mr Emenalo accuses José of creating "palpable discord" in the Chelsea dressing room, what struck all observers is how he twisted himself out of shape to do so without mentioning José`s name.
Thus did Mr Emenalo eloquently communicate his utter contempt for one of the greatest legends in Chelsea.
Let`s just say we needn`t try too hard to work out what sort of technical director Emenalo was for José.'
By now you know that you made a grave error in sacking Chelsea`s greatest ever manager.
You cannot take all the blame for reacting to the management summary that was placed in front of you: to all extents and purposes much of what was happening at the club in early December smacked of meltdown.
Now the heat of the moment has given way to the cold light of day, however, you will have been able to examine everything more closely and know in your heart of hearts that you were largely sold a bill of goods.
A couple months since Guus` arrival and the club has 'leapt` from 15th… to, er, 13th. 11 points from 8 Premiership games. Not one single solitary home Premiership win for the fans to cheer. Player after player after player admitting they had absolutely no problem with José - some even prepared to go to court to fight anyone who would say different.
Meanwhile, one of the world`s only managers anywhere near José`s level snubs you and goes to Man City, another slightly lesser manager publicly declares he wouldn't touch CFC with a barge-pole with the transfer policy José was handcuffed by and another, far lesser managerial candidate from Italy is roundly warned not to touch "sack happy" Chelsea.
In a recent article in The Guardian the excellent Jonathan Wilson said:
"…when something is not working at a club, the easiest solution is to sack the manager, who becomes a scapegoat, his slaughter symbolically absolving his people… In The Manager, Barney Ronay essentially argues that the role was invented to insulate the board of directors from blame."
Does any of that strike a chord, Mr Abramovich?
Unlike you, the Chelsea faithful - your core fan franchise - never wavered.
They desperately wanted José to stay and fight whatever disease it is that has been allowed to creep into the very foundations of CFC.
Former players, legends and managers, and even those with no association with Chelsea at all such as Sir Alex Ferguson, made it clear in the media that they felt José was the only one able to keep things together at Stamford Bridge.
Tragically, I strongly believe that those who you trusted to watch over the operations of the club during your essential peregrinations were the only ones who truly wanted José gone - and that they sacrificed CFC`s best interests for the 'benefit` of their own positions in the CFC hierarchy.
I believe these people you trusted used José`s immeasurable drive and passion - the very things that make him the world`s most effective manager - as weapons against him in a ruthless manner designed to destroy his tenure at the head of the team.
They began at the end of last season when it became clear that the team would manage to manage to clinch the Premiership title.
They knew that tweaking José`s nose at the time that he felt most full of himself as a brand new double-winner would cause maximum effect.
I wasn`t there on April 26th when a triumphant and bullish Mourinho presented Michael Emenalo with his transfer needs for the summer window, and I can only guess at the nature of the exchange.
I imagine Mr Emenalo looking over Mourinho`s list with the same cod-concerned and contemptuous expression he later employed in the video announcing the manager`s dismissal.
Did he frown and patronizingly remind José that the club was looking to redevelop the stadium and therefore had to carefully scrutinize all inessential outgoings?
Did he say that he couldn't promise anything and would have to discuss the list with his fellow board directors particularly as Chelsea had won the league by so wide a margin?
Whatever he did say, did Mr Emenalo do so in precisely the manner guaranteed to infuriate José Mourinho, a Chelsea legend in full flow expecting nothing but grateful compliance?
That would explain why what should have been a calmer and more secure-feeling Chelsea manager than ever in fact exploded onto the new season exhibiting more uncontrolled and bizarre behavior than any of us had ever before witnessed.
It would explain the awful Dr Eva outbursts, the ever more wild-eyed and incoherent post-match interviews, the increasingly Eric Cantona-esque press conferences.
For the Chelsea faithful, the fact that José chose to remain 100% loyal to you, Mr Abramovich, rather than reveal the way his hands had been tied in the transfer market is one of the many things that will bind him forever to our hearts.
(Even this weekend, when pushed by Sky News he referenced only obliquely the fact that squads need to be kept on their toes by being challenged by new players or else they become complacent.)
When he realized he was truly being denied the tools to do the job properly, loyal servant that he was José went back to the well.
Like a general under siege who had just discovered he would not be getting reinforcements he went back to his men and broke the grim reality that they all faced together: remember the end of last season, men? More of the same please!
Was there at any point an exchange, Mr Abramovich, where the manager was told that, having won the Premier league at what some regarded a relative canter, it would be ok to win with a smaller margin next time and therefore the existing squad would suffice?
Because accounting procedures don`t apply to football management, sir: if they did any old accountant could do it.
Was the manager perhaps too constipated with sheer fury at the lack of gratitude for his and his players` achievements last season to point out that anything gained last season was by an ultimately threadbare squad, everyone of whom had worked themselves to a skeleton?
And that to blithely expect to replicate similar performances yet again was to ask players to draw from a largely empty well and to disappoint fans hoping for a more expansive approach this season?
At the very least Chelsea`s superstar Eden Hazard was known to be expecting some of the pressure to be taken off him and to be allowed to develop and grow as one of Europe`s most exciting attacking forces.
You don`t need to be some kind of psychological savant to understand Hazard`s reaction on being told that he had to put his ambitions on hold and spend even more time being a defensive midfielder if not full-back than he did last season.
"Oh, and by the way Eden? We`re also not going to be adding any serious talent to make defenders have to stop ganging up on you."
How do you think that went down with one of the most sought-after players in the world and his advisors, Mr Abramovich?
And that`s just one player, sir, one player being told that far from making progress and stepping up Chelsea`s ability to compete against Europe`s finest, the whole season was to be another exhausting, nerve-shredding dogfight from day one.
We all know José Mourinho.
We all know how he will have run the gamut of emotions from anger at his betrayal through sadness for his beloved players to his inevitable re-commitment to be the best he could possibly be under the circumstances.
That re-commitment seems to have included the necessarily unorthodox decision to at least give the players more time off to recharge and prepare for what would be the toughest season they would ever face - that would explain the prolonged summer break.
. As the season got under way, it quickly became clear that while some stalwarts at the younger end such as Azpilicueta and Willian and Zouma were happy to put their heads down and continue ploughing forward for their manager, others had other ideas - as some always do in life.
In any mix of individuals there will always be the ultra-loyal few, the in-betweens and the me-me-me`s.
Results quickly exposed several issues: that irrespective of how hard you crack the whip, some donkeys will always be recalcitrant. (What about removing the whip altogether and breaking out the carrots? Well, Guus Hiddink is gleaning the 'benefits` of that right now.)
Next we discovered the obvious fact that, when tired, demotivated, under-resourced players face teams doubly-determined to knock them off their championship perch, no result whatsoever is guaranteed however lowly-seeming the opposition.
Most important to any manager is stopping and scoring goals: Mourinho quickly discovered huge issues on both fronts - issues that merely working harder would not address (which is why he had put in his list of transfers in the first place - hard not to keep returning to that critical, baffling turning point).
With the acute eye that makes him the best defensive tactician in football history, José detected serious issues in his back line - not least with John Terry`s slow return to full throttle.
I have no idea how many bricks the manager had to throw out of his pram to spur the belated pursuit of John Stones, or what passive-aggression there was around that whole process from the board.
Suffice to say, Chelsea`s belated pursuit of Stones came to nought, while we the fans had to accept that everything José wanted done to get him was done but failed nevertheless. Hmmm.
In Stones` stead came - ta-da! - Papa Djilobodji from Nantes.
Let`s assume that the amount of first team minutes (in single figures) Papy has played in a Chelsea shirt (or ever will play) reflects not only José`s enthusiasm for that particular Emenalo 'master-stroke` but also Hiddink`s, i.e. zero.
Another key calumny in this nightmare season was the relentless fire-hose of highly-paced unflattering anti-Mourinho information from someone in Chelsea that the media were showered with each and every day.
We all know that José has no time at all for the niceties of PR or appearances: you only have to attend one of his press conferences to see that he barely takes the whole thing seriously.
Relentlessly feeding the media stuff designed to embarrass the manager really is the cheapest of all cheap shots, Mr. Abramovich.
Whoever was charged with/volunteered for maintaining that barrage of poisonous gossip at CFC should be ashamed of themselves.
The aim of the poison was of course to undermine the manager, to keep the Chelsea dressing room off balance at all times, to encourage recalcitrant players to remain so, to ensure that the slightest gain was muddied or minimized, the tiniest slither of contentiousness or negativity maximized.
Players like Diego Costa on whom Mourinho so hugely relied and who was clearly missing his adopted Spain among God knows what else, were palpably harmed by the constant media barrage.
The beauty of a Mourinho team as you know, Mr Abramovich, is that it is an organic, interdependent whole that becomes considerably more than the sum of its parts (it`s why you first hired José after his 'little` Porto won the Champions League, remember?).
When that interdependence turns into a negative domino effect you have a major problem: as a depressed Costa struggled to overcome injury, fitness and dietary issues, Cesc Fabregas also suffered for lack of a fully-functioning striker to target; with Fabregas off his game, an aging Ivanovic - returning late to form and fitness like everyone else - suddenly couldn't rely on Cesc for any kind of cover and was exposed; with Ivanovic exposed, an already struggling JT was further stretched at the worst possible time; all of which stretched Matic to the point where he can now barely function.
Etc, etc, etc, etc.
It`s important to bear in mind at all times that only the manager is charged with ensuring the team performs brilliantly.
Someone like the technical director is there to help and stand behind the manager.
As a Chelsea board member the technical director must also bear in mind all kinds of other corporate issues - ground redevelopment for instance.
Above all, it`s his choice what kind of technical director he wishes to be: a kind helpful one who says way up front:
"Look José we`re in this together and we need to help each other: Roman is obsessed about finding the money for the ground and remaining within the Fair Play money cap - we may not to be able to get every single player we target this summer. Let`s try to figure out together."
Or an obstructive one who says,
"These transfers won`t fly. It`s more than my job`s worth to back you in front of Roman. Yer on yer own."
In the video where Mr Emenalo accuses José of creating "palpable discord" in the Chelsea dressing room, what struck all observers is how he twisted himself out of shape to do so without mentioning José`s name.
Thus did Mr Emenalo eloquently communicate his utter contempt for one of the greatest legends in Chelsea.
Let`s just say we needn`t try too hard to work out what sort of technical director Emenalo was for José.'
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