A Football Report

By Jordan Brown

The chant rang around Tehrir Square over the weekend—the chant of the revolution, the chant that brought down deposed Mubarak, ‘The people want to bring down the regime!” They shouted it this time for a new leader, the democratically elected Mohammend Morsi—a man who is suddenly discovering the confines of power, the limits of his reach.

Somewhere in London a dour Frenchman was ending his day, and if he were to have seen the scenes in Cairo, heard the chant of the young revolutionaries, it would probably sound to him much like, “You don’t know what you’re doing.” A game as ubiquitous in global culture as football finds itself mirroring many other spheres of human society, none so often as politics, and no role in football is so neatly politicized as Manager.

Football is a republic built on popular momentum; it is the modern circus maximus played out in coliseums of steel and glass, and the mobs are still the masters. In every seat of the stands sits a revolutionary, a fan who holds their own individual ideal of their club’s perfection. They know the way their team should play, who they should sign, and exactly what great heights of achievement each season should hold. Their minds are filled with gleaming trophy cabinets and memorable performances, and to all of them the one standing in the way of the dream made life is the flesh and blood man in the puffy jacket pacing the byline in front of them. Everyone is the best fit for the job except for the one who currently holds the title.

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By Mark Griffiths

Well, it’s a living.

Or rather, it could turn out to be a profitable living. Mourinho has carefully crafted his career, step-by-step, taking over clubs which are in the perfect state to be taken on to a higher level; Mancini has a track record of taking clubs so far, but then hitting the wall. Having already succeeded him at Inter, Mourinho might realise after his visit to the Etihad this week that Mancini is an expert at creating the sort of conditions he loves to inherit.

Mourinho knows what he’s looking for when he moves on. Chelsea were flush with cash and had gone through the awkward settling-in period which such a dramatic change of financial circumstances inevitably brings. Just ask Claudio Ranieri, Mark Hughes and Antoine Kombouaré about it for confirmation. Inter had got themselves stuck at a level of domestic domination but continental stagnation. Real Madrid needed someone to slay the Catalan dragon.

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“It is not normal to sell an image of perfection, because at the end of the day nobody is perfect.” - José. May 6, 2012.

You won’t know why I said it. Lots of people think they know me - that they have the measure of me. None of them do, they say it is something in my character, the impulse that drives me - then two weeks later it will be that I’m such a devious planner and that it’s all mind games. You can’t get your stories straight because it really doesn’t have anything to do with me, this perception of yours. It has everything to do with what you want, and what you need.

Is it some sort of surprise that these things come out of me? You all want football to be a narrative, a story with all the component parts. You want characters: some to cheer and others to shout down. It was the television that did this - the same place you could watch The Lone Ranger became the same place your football lives. Therefore, all the plotlines have to be easy for you, so I make them easy: you’re either with me or against me.

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It’s a question that has no easy answer. The intangibles and the ever-rising feeling of ambiguity plague the fans. But the thing that makes Andre Villas Boas’ sacking most sobering is the fact that Chelsea still look completely lost. They are lost not only in the sense that they cannot find a rhythm on the pitch. The club’s identity hangs in limbo, as the winning mentality that has been so prominent in recent years is fleeting rapidly. And a workaholic, a man obsessed with making Chelsea a power once again was merely tossed aside on to the street, albeit with nine million pounds in compensation, which is not too bad if you ask me. Now those partaking in football betting have the difficult task on their hands of determining what exactly happens next. Media outlets are picking names out of a hat and screaming them at the top of their lungs. It’s chaos, but whoever ends up as Chelsea’s permanent choice better be able to manage egos and an ever-aging squad.

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