Despite leading Chelsea to their first league silver in half a century, Jose Mourinho was out as manager for the London club on this day in soccer history in 2007. The official release stated it was by ‘mutual consent’ of the manager and owner Roman Abramovich.
“The reason the decision has been taken is that we believed the breakdown [between Mourinho and owner Roman Abramovich] started to impact on the performance of the team. Recent results supported this view. We did not want this to continue or affect the club further. Early this morning we announced that Chelsea and Jose Mourinho had agreed to part company by mutual consent. The key phrase here is that there was mutual agreement. Jose did not resign and he was not sacked.”
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The relationship between Mourinho, ‘the special one’ and Roman, the Russian billionaire owner, was pointed to as the main reason with the team highly opinionated figures not seeing eye to eye on many matters from the use or lack of use of Andriy Shevchenko, bringing in Avram Grant as director of football, to the lack of adequate funds during the transfer period.
Mourinho helped the Stamford Bridge side win two League titles, including Chelsea’s first for half a century, two League Cups and the FA Cup. The only honor lacking on his resume while with Chelsea was a UEFA Champions League title.
Watch some great moments from the Special One.
Soccer Birthdays
1963 – David Seaman, English footballer
1973 – Nick Colgan, Irish footballer
1978 – Jorge López Montaña, Spanish footballer
