Do you think AVB would have succeeded at Chelsea given time? He's doing great at Spurs considering our lack of financial clout compared to Chelsea, City, Utd and even arsenal and Liverpool.
Sure he's not perfect but he's progressed really well.

Maybe he learnt from his time at Chelsea Bahamas and is better for it. Mourinho thus far goes to a club with lots of money and wins trophies. I have never seen any evidence though I may be wrong that he is that bothered about nurturing youth or is interested in it.

That's a difficult question and nobody can say for sure whether he would have succeeded or not.

For the purpose of this comment, I will admit to being a firm backer of AVB even when he we were in a terrible, terrible state. I remember standing in the away end at Goodison last season absolutely fuming as the Toffees tore us to shreds. He seemed as if he'd just given up that day, we were horrendous.

But I think it would be fair to say that Roman expected far too much of AVB in his first season. In fairness, AVB certainly didn't do himself any favours in the way he treated players such as Lampard, Cech and Terry. I do think he had a attitude problem and engrossed himself in the job too much, which prevented him from seeing the bigger picture.

However, I have no hard feelings towards him, if it weren't for Andre we wouldn't have appointed Robbie and we wouldn't have won the Champions League.

I hope he goes on to have a glittering career, as I think he is capable of being a good manager, I just hope it isn't with you boys

Jose left a treble winning Milan side, what seeds were sewn?

The problem with Jose is he prefers experience to youth, which after a few seasons in charge leaves little for the future. Jose isn't afraid to axe egos growing to large, he just wasn't at Chelsea long enough to do so.

I'm not a fan if his antics, but he is possibly he best motivator out there.

Gunnerbegood - For what it's worth, I totally agree with you.

At Chelsea I remember how he would often play Ferreira or Essien at left back rather than stick in Bertrand. Now, this wasn't in Champions League matches, it was against teams in the bottom half of the table, which with all due respect, we should be winning against regardless. So it isn't that much of a gamble.

Even this season at Real he's been hesitant about playing Varane who is going to be an absolute world beater.

Sure he'll steady the ship but inevitably when he leaves, which he will, we'll be back to square one and we'll end up repeating this sorry state of affairs all over again.

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If we bring back Mourinho then wouldn´t the aim be to keep him at Chelsea for the long-term having learned our lesson that you cant keep sacking managers every time they go through a blip ?

BusbysBabes - You just answered your own question.

"The problem with Jose is he prefers experience to youth, which after a few seasons in charge leaves little for the future."

Inter were like a carbon copy of Chelsea, a good team with aging stars. Sure they'd just came off the back of the treble but whoever the next manager was, they were in for one heck of a tough job. They basically had to revamp a whole team.

Look at them this season, they are fifth. Twelve points off Juventus who currently occupy pole position and nine points off Napoli in second.

Petrescu, he didn't play Bertand for a reason, he wasn't as good and Jose wants to win now, not in 3 or 4 years.

Superb - Apart from us, it's never been the clubs choice about when he ups sticks. He goes when a better offer comes up or when he thinks hes done all he can.

I honestly don't see Jose staying at any club for more than four/five seasons. At Madrid and to a lesser extent us, he had the world at his feet. He could have built a dynasty but it looks like he'll be on the move once again this summer.

Ha good point petrescu, AVB was pretty intent on ruffling a few feathers with the players at chelsea. Clearly didn't work!

Good article but I think it was our poor choice of managers that caused the turbulence. Scolari wasn't good enough, then we appointed Carlo who won the double, so no trouble then, and then AVB was a mess. Same with Inter (Rafa)

I honestly don't see Jose staying at any club for more than four/five seasons.

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And when was the last time we kept a manager for five years ?

There´s two sides to that coin.

If we could get four or five years out of Mourinho then I would take that as it would inevitably include winning the title at least once and maybe more.

At the moment we look a million miles from winning the PL anytime soon.

Superb - True, we haven't kept a manager for that length of time in some years. Our last, I believe, was The Tinkerman.


I understand, as a club, we are running out of options to take the reigns and I understand why people would take Mourinho back again, especially for the four to five years you mentioned, but I just think Jose is the wrong choice.

The point of this article is not to berate Mourinho, we all know he is a great manager. I just think that there are other options, albeit limited, which need explored. And for that manager to be given time.

The point of this article is not to berate Mourinho, we all know he is a great manager. I just think that there are other options, albeit limited, which need explored. And for that manager to be given time.
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Agreed.

The players would love him back and that for me is enough. He is also not afraid to take risks and can change a game realtime and not wait until the last 5 minutes.
I would love to see him back managing in the Premier league purely for the entertainment factor and the cohesion I think he adds to any team.
Will Roman have him back and give him the freedom to manage how he see's fit........probably not!.

Roman's control of team affairs has increased since Mourinho left.

Bridge, I rate Mourinho highly, but he takes risks when his team are behind generally. I know you can pick the odd game, but his flamboyance is restricted to his media activities. Of course you could argue he often has high value players to come off the bench to change games.

I think Mourinho is ready to settle down with a club, and build a legacy with them before he goes on to international management.

Regarding young players, I remember Mourinho giving a young Lassan Diarra, Sam Hutchinson, Scott Sinclair, David Santon...etc a chance (I'm sure there are more), however they were just not good enough, especially with the squad that he had built. Therefore we do not know how he would be regarding youth when he is at a club long term. But I don't buy into the idea that he would just say no to youth by only preferring the experienced players, if the young players are good enough, they will make it under Mourinho no doubt.

I'm certainly +ive if he is at a club long term, he would bring up players that are good enough from the youth team to the first team. We just have not seen that long-term side of him yet, but we will if he comes back this summer. (By the way I am convinced he is coming back)

I just think that there are other options, albeit limited, which need explored.

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Can I ask you what are those options in your opinion ?

Regarding young players, I remember Mourinho giving a young Lassan Diarra, Sam Hutchinson, Scott Sinclair, David Santon...etc a chance (I'm sure there are more),

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Exactly. I even remember Jose giving that ginger kid a few games. Can´t remember his name though.

Problem is that during Jose´s tenure none of the kids were good enough.

We have much better kids now so it would be interesting to see what Jose would do with them.

Mourinho is one of our greats. He will always be remembered fondly....unless he comes back and fails. Why risk that? Why can we not move on? There is always the next great manager out there. We need to find and give that person a chance. Just like our players as well. We make hasty decisions to want rid of a player after about 3-4 months with us. We have so much potential in our team people need to relax and give these players, whom have seen about 54 managers since they've signed, a chance to grow with our team.

The grass isnt always greener...

@Superb - Certainly. These are just a few off the top of my head, some currently unemployed, some had a slight blip at their last job and some are total outsiders.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me but here they are in no particular order.

- Joachim Low
- Diego Simeone
- Jurgen Klopp
- Manuel Pellegrini
- Slaven Bilic
- Unai Emery
- Bert Van Marwijk

Micahel Woods?

Our team back then was full class players, so it's no surprise those players didn't make it through. I'm sure if he had someone special like Neymar in the u18's team he would have made it. But players like Wilshere, if he was trying to break into our team during those years.......well I think he would have failed.

@Superb - The boy in question is Michael Woods, who we "tapped up" from Leeds along with Tom Taiwo.

Yeah cheers lads. Michael Woods it is.

What happened to him ?

The last time I saw him was at Griffin Park in 2009 for the reserves when he limped off the field after getting injured.