All this media coverage of Mourinho’s departure from the Russians is just beyond me.

What annoys me the most is how everyone that has been interviewed or questioned has praised what the so called ‘Special One’ has done for football in this country.

Talk about spouting complete bollocks!

The coverage to be quite honest has been completely absurd.

The only reason people have been flattering of Mourinho is because he’s gone! He was not good for football in this country and I just cannot believe how gullible and naive people are.

Seriously.

Everyone just believes all the reports and rubbish they see and hear in the media and most people have forgot about the facts on Mourinho’s reign at Chelsea Football Club.

Let’s break down the Special One’s reign as Chelsea manager shall we?

His Purchases In The Transfer Market

With a bottomless pit of money, obviously you will use it and Mourinho was no exception. Arsenal fans will tell you about Arsene’s ability to buy young talent and mould them into world class players. We have Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Bobby Pires, Kolo Toure, Manu Eboue – the list is endless. Don’t get me wrong, Wenger has had his fair share of donkeys in his time. Remember Francis Jeffers? Remember Richard Wright?

Well whatever Arsene’s poor buys have added up to, they surely don’t even come close to the value of Mourinho’s crap purchases.

We have Mateja Kezman (£5.4m), Tiago (£10m), Paulo Ferreira (£13.3m), Michael Ballack (Free), Andriy Shevchenko (£30m) and Asier del Horno (£8m) to name but a few over the years.

Good stuff!

And some of Mourinho’s best players, Lampard, Terry and Joe Cole were already there, and if you think back you will remember that Petr Cech and Arjen Robben were actually Claudio Ranieri signings.

Tapping Up Ashley Cole

Then there is Mourinho’s disregard for even the simplest rules. Because he had a so-called ‘left-back crisis’ he saw fit to meet Cashley Cole behind Arsenal’s back, despite the fact he was under contract to Arsenal Football Club. Yes, Cole is hardly blameless either but for a ‘top manager’ to even do this is completely ridiculous. Would SAF or AW do this?

This would be a damaging matter that would start from late January until late September of 2005, covering most of the season where Arsenal would finish second to Chelsea in the Premier League. Arguably one of Arsenal’s best talents and Arsenal fans would leave for Chelsea just one season later after Arsene Wenger allowed him to leave, and after playing him in one of the biggest games in World Football – the Champions League Final.

Mourinho himself was fined £200,000 for his part in the saga, which was reduced to £75,000 on appeal. Not a bad price for poaching one of the best left backs in English football.

The Anders Frisk Affair

During the 2004/2005 Champions League campaign and during a game against Barcelona and the Camp Nou, Jose Mourinho publicly accused referee Anders Frisk of ‘inviting Frank Rijkaard to his dressing room at half time’ which is against UEFA regulations.

Anders Frisk would receive death threats after Mourinho’s public tongue-lashing and after severe criticism from Chelsea fans, Chelsea players and Chelsea management. Only weeks later, Frisk would cut short his 18 year career as a referee because of death threats towards him and his family.

Mourinho on the other hand would receive a two match touchline ban.

And Volker Roth, the UEFA referee’s chief would later call Jose Mourinho “an enemy of football.”

Quite an accolade, Jose.

A year later again in the Champions League, Barcelona fans would greet Mourinho with abuse and spitting when he arrived in Catalan, and he would experience even more on the way to the team hotel.

Other Feuds & Controversies

One incident Arsenal fans will remember are Mourinho’s comments where he called Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’ who was obsessed with Chelsea. Jose would also reveal having a 120 dossier which was full on comments Arsene has made about Chelsea. Mourinho would realise how stupid he was making those comments and would later apologise to Arsene in the form of a greeting card.

In December 2006, Mourinho was in the headlines again – this time labelling Everton’s Andy Johnson a ‘cheat and untrustworthy’. This would prompt Everton to threaten with legal action, and force Mourinho to apologise yet again for his outlandish statements.

He then of course called Double Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo ‘ill-educated, disrespectful and immature‘, for which Mourinho apologised yet again…

And there was the goal Luis Garcia scored in the Champions League against Chelsea, where had another public tantrum about the goal being allowed in the first place. A top motion expert argued said it was actually over the line, and Rafa Benitez pointed out that Baros should of had a penalty for the initial incident anyway if the goal hadn’t of stood. Something which obviously slipped the mind of Jose Mourinho.

The ‘Special One’s’ Love For Chelsea

Before even joining Chelsea, Jose Mourinho would publicly declare how he would much rather join Liverpool, citing several reservations about joining Chelsea.

And if Jose loves Chelsea so much, surely he would just get on with his job?

Instead he managed to get involved in all kinds of backroom politics, seemingly looking for an excuse for an arguement. Well it looks like he got what he wanted, which was a £20 million plus pay off from the club he ‘loves’ so much.

Conclusion

Could anyone actually picture Jose Mourinho staying with Chelsea in the long term?

Neither did I.

The problem is the word ‘great’ is banded around far too much, especially with the excessive media coverage we get in this modern age. 24 hour sports news channels, endless football websites – these need to fill time and space and what better way to go well over the top about Jose Mourinho.

We have ever man and his dogs opinion on how ‘amazing’ Jose was, and it’s amazing people forget someones faults and failings when they are gone.

Yes, he was probably Chelsea’s ‘greatest ever’ manager but that’s not exactly hard with their ‘history’ is it?

I regard managers like Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly as true greats, and Mourinho has a long way off to become anywhere near the stature of those guys.

After celebrating Arsenal’s fantastic win over Sevilla in the Champions League, news has broke that Chelsea and the so called ‘Special One’ have parted ways. I heard the news tonight while listening to Talksport, and whether this is a wind up (I wouldn’t put it past them) or actually happening is obviously open to debate.

The Daily Mail have reported it as well, and expect loads of other reports to surface in the morning.

I don’t actually believe it at the moment, as the ‘reports’ say that Mourinho texted players saying he’s leaving. That in itself sounds fishy.

But they again, I couldn’t really give a toss.

Although it looks like Gallas got out at the right time!

I’ll post some real news tomorrow when I review the Arsenal and Sevilla game. Ah, isn’t it a wonderful feeling winning the opening game of the Champions League?

Now time for some sleep…

Did I mention we managed to win our opening game?

With all Jose’s talk about eggs, it looks like the yokes on him…

It’s a strange time of the season really.

While I’m intrigued with who will get through the Champions League Semi-Finals and make it to Athens, the emotional memories of that night in Villarreal where Jens Lehmann made some simply outstanding saves and denied Riquelme from the penalty spot to take us to Paris come flooding straight back to me.

That still brings a tear to my eye!

But a year on and Arsenal aren’t in the mix – the 4 teams remaining who are fighting to get into the final are AC Milan, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

So who will make it?

Manchester United are 3-2 up against AC Milan but the Italians have 2 away goals which could count for a lot. You can see United scoring at the San Siro but can they keep out Kaka et al who can be a totally different prospect in front of their home crowd?

And despite United’s major injury problems over the past few weeks they could see the return of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at the back which could prove vital.

And on top of that, the huge lift from this weekend’s football (virtually sealing the Premiership) will give the team a big boost going to Milan.

It’s a tough one to call, but I can see Rooney and Ronaldo helping United to score twice against an aging Milan defence. That would mean Kaka would need to score 3 goals and I just can’t see that happening!

For me United will progress.

And what about the other Semi-Final?

It’s a tough one, but if Chelsea score even one that means Liverpool need 3 goals. At Anfield that’s possible (remember Olympiakos?) but to do that against Chelsea is a totally different ball game.

Liverpool need to score first and score early to put the pressure on Chelsea – they’ll have to make a decision to either nick an away goal or hold on to what they’ve got.

Chelsea are a funny team – they’ll either go all out and smash Liverpool scoring 2 or 3 to completely kill the tie or they could be subdued, not get into the game and let Liverpool score a couple and progress.

And Anfield you just don’t know what will happen.

It’s like against the games against Arsenal this season. We beat them convincingly 3-1 in the FA Cup but then in the league everything went for them and they beat us 4-1!

You would think that the outcome of the tie totally depends on the performance of Peter Crouch. The best defender in the league this season – Ricardo Carvalho – is out and Michael Essien will have big problems coping with the height of Crouch.

The two Bolton goals at the weekend exposed Chelsea’s weakness at defending set-pieces and Essien was at fault for the second, leaving Kevin Davies with a free header to equalise. The first goal they conceded was scored from poor defending and uncertainty at the back.

Whatever happens it will be fascinating, but I fancy Chelsea to conclude a miserable week by crashing out of the Premiership and Champions League in a matter of days and for Steven Gerrard to lead Liverpool into another one of those memorable victories at Anfield.

So who do you guys think will make it to Athens?

Well Chelsea have blown it.

After having the chance to really put the pressure on last week at Newcastle they stuttered to a dull draw when United only drew against Middlesbrough. And a win at St James’ Park would have put Chelsea only a point behind United.

But now, after again disappointing against a weakened Bolton side (with 6 first team players out injured) they find themselves 5 points behind with only 3 games to go.

Surely Manchester United know they’ll be lifting the Premiership Title once again.

The fact is United can draw against Manchester City next week, and if Arsenal beat Chelsea at the Emirates then the title race is over.

It would have been good to see a title race go right to the wire but now with United effectively having a 6 point lead (5 points with a superior goal difference) then it’s all over now.

I was watching the Manchester United game today and Everton did brilliantly to go two goals ahead and blow the Premiership wide open but I haven’t seen a worse collapse in some time.

In the second half, United looked lost and really didn’t look like scoring at all. But the Everton keeper gifted a goal by dropping a simple corner and only a few minutes later Phil Neville thought he was playing for United and scored a sloppy own goal.

Then after that there was only one winner and Rooney scored the 3rd and United reserve Eagles finished the game in stoppage time.

I’d say for a while that whoever wins the league will win the FA Cup, and that could push them on to win the Champions League.

And at the moment United have that momentum and could sweep the treble, and Chelsea could end up with just the Carling Cup.

But could today signal the start of a Chelsea collapse?

They will not give up in the Premiership but mentally the players and Mourinho will think it is all over with the number of games remaining, the big 5 point gap and harder fixtures coming up.

And going to Anfield on Tuesday, Chelsea will know that if they lose then they have been dumped out of two major competitions in only 4 days.

Well at least Cashley Cole has that valuable Carling Cup medal anyway.

Okay, maybe the lack of Arsenal matches over the last couple of weeks has made me slightly insane but after beating Andorra there are a few things that are obvious.

We all know McClaren is more of a PR man than an actual manager. Don’t get me wrong, while he probably isn’t the best coach out their he is a capable number two which was most evident when he help Alex Ferguson and Manchester United win the treble in 1999. And while I don’t think McClaren is good enough to be England manager it’s not his fault the FA are completely useless and can’t find a decent manager.

It’s obvious he only cares about being liked by the public and the players – hence all the PR rubbish over the last few weeks and the insistence on playing players on reputation instead of form. Rooney and Lampard in particular should have been dropped several games ago.

But despite McClaren’s inept ability to manage England it’s obvious the problems lie with the players on the pitch representing our country.

English players are average.

And when you put them all together then all you have is an average team.

Technically the Italians, Brazilians, Germans and French are on another level. And the main reason is because these countries have talent playing all over the world in different leagues – we don’t.

With the exception of Owen Hargreaves (who is apparently ‘English’) and the exiled David Beckham, England have no talent overseas.

How can you have a completely rounded team (and squad) that all ply their trade in the same league?

It’s not the foreigners in the Premiership that is the problem, it’s the lack of ambition (or is it fear?) to play in another country.

For Brazil, you have Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Gilberto, Emerson – and most of the squad in fact – that play abroad. The French also have Henry, Makalele, Vieira, Zidane (now retired), Anelka, Thuram and others also play in overseas leagues.

The media over-hype these players beyond belief – whether it’s to promote the latest football boot or god forbid, a new book – and the problem is we all believe now that England are world beaters.

But the only time our country looked like winning anything was way back in 1996 under Terry Venables.

Now I’m not a fan of Sven, but he did win things with Roma, Benfica, Sampdoria and Lazio, as well as a European Cup final against AC Milan with Benfica.

So if a manager with that success can’t do things with England, then how is a man who has only won the Carling Cup going to do better?

Or maybe the bigger question is can any manager actually lead this England team to any success?