Book Description

‘I stay until they want me not to stay. No club moves me from Chelsea until Chelsea wants me to move because I want to be where I am loved’ - JOSE MOURINHO, JANUARY 2014 Yet in December 2015, the love affair came to an incredible and stunning end. This book chronicles the entire remarkable story of Jose Mourinho and Chelsea, with a critical insight into how and why it ended so dramatically. Confrontational, passionate, full of chutzpah, Mourinho is a masterful tactician, and surely the best boss in the history of Chelsea. Yet for a second time the Emperor of the Bridge, Roman Abramovich, cast him aside. The reason? Having won the Premier League, the team’s defence of the title proved to be one of the most bizarre periods in the club’s history. In his first stint at Stamford Bridge the self-styled ‘Special One’ won two League titles back-to-back, the FA Cup and two League Cups, and included a still-unsurpassed Premier League points-tally record of 95 in the 2004-5 season. On returning ‘home’ after a six-year absence, Mourinho received a welcome from an army of Chelsea fans who loved him every bit as much as they used to. He rewarded their faith in some fashion, sweeping aside newly rich Manchester City to soar to a third League title (with three games to spare), as well as a third League Cup. Then came the biggest collapse of any defending title-holder. Why did it happen? Who was to blame? Was there a players’ rebellion? Who panicked behind the scenes, and why? How much was the row with the fi rst-team doctor, Eva Carneiro, at the heart of Mourinho’s second sacking from Chelsea? The answers lie in this fully revised, updated and expanded edition of Harry Harris’s biography. It brings Mourinho’s story right up to date, showing exactly why English football would be infinitely poorer without the colourful, commanding, and controversial presence of the ‘Special One’.