About this time last year, world football focused on an industrial town to the West of Germany; Dortmund. Few months before Borussia Dortmund had won the DFB Pokal Cup (German equivalent of The FA Cup), they had played the previous year’s Champions League final, only narrowly losing to Bayern Munich in extra time, and had finished the Bundesliga in second position for the previous two seasons. They had won the previous titles back to back under Jurgen Klopp and FC Borussia Dortmund had been the first name on the table for several weeks in the past four years. This time last year they were first as well, but from the wrong end of the league table! Dortmund were bottom of the league and were battling relegation.
Under Jurgen Klopp two seasons earlier, they had won the Bundesliga back to back and the second year won the DFB Cup and Bundesliga double. As December fast approached however, the displays became more depressing and inexplicable as the team remained rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga table. Klopp was still the manager and was slowly approaching wits end but he refused to quit as they languished at the bottom of the table.
Even after four wins back to back in January, Dortmund remained within the relegation waters and as Dortmund became the top candidate for relegation, the press began to sharpen their knives for Klopp, but the fans and club hierarchy kept faith with the embattled manager.
Pep Guardiola said of the situation; ‘What happened to Dortmund can happen to us too. In football you can never relax. At any given moment anything can happen’
Guardiola was right! It is happening again as Guardiola predicted last year. It’s 2015 and the same story is repeating itself in Europe again, this time not in Germany but in the heart of London, with Chelsea, under Jose Mourinho and the team that dominated the Premier League and won the double few months ago are no longer recognisable on the pitch.
The decline of Chelsea has been so sharp, it makes a good study for the top Business Schools of the world; How do you become so bad within three months of winning the Cup Double? How does a group that showed so much promise just disintegrate into oblivion so fast in such a short period of time?
Dortmund kept faith with Jurgen Klopp, even when the press was calling for his head. They knew he couldn’t have become a terrible manager overnight, and they choose to sacrifice success for stability, they stood by their players even when the displays became increasingly shocking and abysmal.
If this is going to change, the players have to take responsibility on the field of play. If it’s going to change, Jose has to stop fighting the referees, the press and get back to what he loves doing best, winning football matches. If it’s going to change, the hierarchy have to come out and defend the long term program that they have chosen under Mourinho.
Sir Alex Ferguson once said that complacency is to be avoided at all costs. Once you think you can just turn it on anytime and anyhow, you begin to lose it. A few bad displays bring panic, confusion sets in, players lose confidence and when you lose confidence you invite pressure. I have been there before, and I know that the legs become heavier with each game, and as the pressure mounts from the press, fans, board, and squad your confidence goes as the mind begins to think through everything you previously did in automatic mode.
As the simple things suddenly become extremely difficult, the opposition smell blood and the end result is a fast and furious decline. Chelsea are in deep at the moment but the players and managers have to find a way out quickly before defeat becomes a habit (just as winning was once one)
The players have to start playing for their pride, names and for the club. Enough of excuses and let them take their hearts with them on the pitch to start grinding out results. The club hierarchy also need to come out to decide which direction is best to go; write off the season and bring one or two youths, thereby planning for the next cycle of dominance, or change the manager, but I think it’ll be a big mistake to do the latter.
Despite the whole soap opera in Germany, Jurgen Klopp and Dortmund survived, avoiding the drop with a strong second half display last season. Jurgen Klopp is still a top coach today, well courted and sought after in the footballing world, evident in his recent appointment as the Liverpool manager.
At the end of this Chelsea saga, Jose Mourinho would continue to be a world class coach and would still win major honours in his career, I think it is now down to the hierarchy at the bridge to decide ‘where’ Jose would win major honours again, Chelsea or somewhere else? As a Chelsea fan I hope it is at the bridge but the club have to show faith in him as they work together to make things right.