adminLONDON. — Ruud Gullit believes that Chelsea have become the Tiger Woods of football. The former Blues boss has been unimpressed with Jose Mourinho’s side this season and thinks that they’ve lost their fear factor in a similar fashion to the golfing great. Chelsea’s defeat to Stoke condemned them to a third consecutive Premier League loss and a seventh for the season.
“It’s like Tiger Woods,” Gullit said on Sky Sports. “In the beginning everybody who was standing with Tiger Woods knew already that they had lost the game. “Not people see him and Chelsea and think: ‘We can beat them.’ “They lost that aura of invincibility. They lost it. You can feel it. You can sense it. The players sense that the opposition if not afraid of you anymore.
“To get that back you get it only by results.” It is the worst title defence in English Premier League history but, at least for now, Chelsea maintain they will not sack Mourinho. Chelsea’s defeat at Stoke was their third on the trot in the league and seventh this season. It left them fifth bottom.
No wonder owner Roman Abramovich is being forced to contemplate the previously unthinkable — firing the most popular and successful manager in the club’s history. It is Mourinho’s record and reputation at Chelsea that has seen him survive so far but Abramovich’s patience is being severely tested — just a month after the club took the unorthodox step of releasing a statement that offered their “full support” to the Blues boss.
Chelsea claim that they will not seek a replacement during the upcoming international break, though their Russian billionaire owner will only tolerate humiliation so long before deciding he has no other choice.
Mourinho led Chelsea to the title last season but a club insider claimed he was close to breaking point even before this defeat, which leaves them hopelessly adrift of the top four. — Metro-Daily Star.
Online Reporter