Charlie
Nicholas believes Jose Mourinho may struggle to manage a top club in Europe
again due to his damaged reputation.
Despite leading Chelsea to the Premier League title last season, Mourinho
was sacked on Thursday afternoon, but a statement released by his agents
says the Portuguese manager will not be taking a sabbatical and wishes to
return to management immediately.
Chelsea currently sit 16th in the Premier League table, one point off the
relegation zone, and the club's technical director Michael Emenalo talked of
a "palpable discord between manager and players" which influenced the
decision to sack Mourinho.
Mourinho has already been linked with a return to Real Madrid but Nicholas
believes believes the breakdown in relations could mean difficulties in
where Mourinho goes next.
"As much as he is absolutely fantastic at what he does, I think he's getting
damaged now because of his reputation," he told Soccer Saturday.
"I'm not sure Manchester City will be jumping through hoops to go and get
him the way they might have done two or three years ago. Has he got
longevity? At the moment everybody's talking about Guardiola [getting the
Man City job].
"A lot of people will be interested in Jose Mourinho, absolutely guarantee
that, but it may not be the high profile jobs that were there before."
Nicholas does feel if Mourinho was given more time in charge he could have
surpassed Sir Alex Ferguson as one of the all-time managerial greats, but
his disruptive influence in the dressing room is what has led to his
sacking.
He explained: "It would be ridiculous to consider sacking, who in terms of
his stay at Chelsea, could have taken over from Sir Alex Ferguson to become
the greatest manager in our lifetime because he's such a winner.
"There are a lot of things that I don't like but he brings you success and
because of that he could have been the great one. But what he brings in,
disrupts and creates, is not a healthy situation.
"The constant bickering of Arsene Wenger this season - Wenger actually won
the battle by saying very little - because he [Mourinho] lost where he was
going, he lost his focus."
Also speaking on Soccer Saturday, Phil Thompson spoke about a lack of legacy
at Chelsea for Mourinho despite his considerable success at the club.
"The same thing he's done at every club is he has won a trophy, that's about
it. I don't think he leaves anything," he said.
"I don't think he leaves discipline, and I don't think he leaves a youth
policy. He comes in and is very focused on one thing, to try and win
trophies. He's done it and he'll claim that he's been successful. What I've
learned from people is they like to leave a legacy, a team with youngsters
who come through, see things develop at football clubs.
"Jose's never done that, no matter where he's been, no matter what country
he's been to. He always seems to leave on a bad note."
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