Mourinho and Abramovich Kiss and Make Up

By: Daryl | July 15th, 2007

Jose and Roman sitting in a tree Ok, so maybe they didn’t kiss (99% sure they didn’t) but the well-publicized rift between Chelsea moneybags Roman Abramovich and Chelsea Special One Jose Mourinho is finally healed. Speaking from Los Angeles where Chelsea are currently in pre-season training, Mourinho said “”It was an easy, long and enjoyable meeting and I was more than delighted. The air is clear again and there is no problem.”

The Portugeezer also reaffirmed that his plan was to stay at Chelsea and not defect to La Liga or Serie A. “I am in my fourth season here and if I can carry on five, six, seven, eight years, then I will go on without any problem,” Mourinho said. “I have no desire to change and try something else in Italy or Spain. I do not have that desire.”

What follows is pure speculation, but interesting nonetheless…

Seems that at least some of the “clear the air” talks revolved around the inter-connected topics of Michael Ballack, Andri Shevchenko and Chelsea’s failure to win the Premiership or Champions League last season. The high profile pair were basically Abramovich as opposed to Mourinho signings and the manager was expected to accommodate them into a winning team. He did so by abandoning his favoured attacking 4-3-3 formation in favour of a midfield diamond (to suit Ballack) and two strikers (to suit Shevchenko.) Now Mourinho plans to return to his favoured 4-3-3.

“I want to go back to wingers and play attacking football,” Mourinho explained. “The objective of having players like Robben, Cole, Malouda and Kalou is because we want to give width to our game, to give speed, to give creativity. I don’t want to play football with a diamond any more. So I don’t think it will be easy for Ballack. But he’s a top player, a top personality and I think he’s the kind of guy ready to fight for a place.”

Again, this is speculation, but it appears that Mourinho has won the battle of wills by reaching agreement with Abramovich that for Chelsea to succeed Mourinho has to be able to play the formation he wants to play, and not be forced into accommodating the two big money, big name signings.