Doing my late night writing for the local paper I saw that Jose Mourinho was gone and I was in complete but not utter shock. For the boys at Stamford Bridge this could not have come at a worse time because they were struggling on the offensive end. After leading Porto to European glory, Mourinho obtained immediate success at Stamford Bridge winning back-to-back Premiership titles. This past year problems began to emerge and the constant scrutiny that he was under affected the team. His relationship with Abramovich became more of a topic of interest to the media than the club’s performance on the field. They eventually lost out on an eventual three-peat to Manchester United, although they did with the Community Shield as well as the FA Cup.
This season did not start out so well after losing to Aston Villa and drawing with Blackburn. Where "it" truly hit the fan was after the Blues drew at home to Norwegian side Rosenborg in their Champions League group opener at home this past Tuesday.
The news came as a shock to us night owls here in the left side of the pond, but imagine to the Blues faithful when they woke up just hours ago as they headed to school or work and found out that "The Special One" was no longer with them. He still had three years remaining on his £6.5 million (US$13 million) contract. This along with other conditions are what he has admitted to as becoming "fed up" with the club.
According to details, the club confirmed his departure early Thursday morning. This news to many was a long time coming as he had fallen out with club owner Roman Abramovich. The Russian magnate’s penchant for obtaining expensive talent like Michael Ballack and Andriy Shenchenko haven’t panned the way he thought they would.
Presently former Juventus and Monaco coach Didier Deschamps along with Guus Hiddink and Sevilla coach Juande Ramos are the primary candidates to replace Mourinho.