Enough is Enough For Football. Not Just Jose.

Well I suppose we should all get ready for a minute's silence at all the grounds this weekend. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown felt compelled today to pay his respects to the passing of one of the game's great............sorry, what's that? Nobody's died? But I thought someone must have died the way people are talking.

What? A football manager's lost his job? Really? Oh I see.

Yes. A Premiership manager has lost his job people. Why that means that even Gordon Brown has to jump on the bandwagon and stick his awe in on a subject that is nothing to do with him, I don't know. But there we go. This is the kind of over-exposed, over-scrutinised football world we live in. OK, let's be realistic for a second. Jose Mourinho was a little bit more than just a Premiership Manager. He was the one who took Roman's high-profile milllions and actually made a success out of them in his first year. His trophy haul speaks for itself even if he didn't actually manage to bag Roman's coveted European Cup. But two semi-finals in three years is actually a pretty good record in itself and somebody should remind Roman Abramovich that only one team can win the Champions League each year. Perhaps he should take a step back, exercise a bit of patience and accept that some things take time and instant success cannot necessarily be bought; no matter how much money you throw at it.

The general consensus from the media (and Gordon Brown) is that Jose will be missed as one of the "characters" of the game. Maybe so but his part in the whipping up of Chelsea fans' fury against Anders Frisk after the Barcelona game was the sort of behaviour and poor sportsmanship we can happily live without. And, frankly we here will not miss his style of football particularly. Chelsea in 2005 and 2006 were worthy, if not very attractive Champions. But each to their own. We all want our teams to be successful after all. What we at RTG would like to see is Jose installed as England manager should we qualify for 2008. He seems to play a style that gets the best out of English players and his teams are difficult to beat - a quality essential in winning any knockout tournament. Add to that the fact that he seems to know his own mind rather than simply exercising the wishes of the media in his selection policy. Ultimately this appears to have been his downfall at Chelsea.

What the whole episode should teach us is this. Those supporters who embrace wealthy non-football businessmen because they think it will buy their team success should seriously think if this is the way they want the sport to go. Abramovich now believes that, because he is an incredibly wealthy man, he can pick football teams and judge potential players better than his manager and coach. Should the coach not agree, he'll simply get rid of him and put someone else in. In the meantime presumably he'll just continue to spend money until he gets what he wants. What he'll do after he achieves it who knows? But Chelsea fans should be concerned about more than just the loss of a successful manager. These people are messing around with the sport and the clubs that we love as supporters. For some strange reason, everybody seems to be concentrating on one man's plight rather than the bigger issue and why this paints football in a bad light. Mourinho is just a successful, intelligent, slightly quirky, football manager who will bounce back no doubt. Abramovich represents something far different and nobody, but nobody who loves the game of football should be pleased to witness what we are seeing unfolding in our game.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Well done to Chelsea fans for voting with their feet in support of Jose Mourinho and staying away in droves from their Champions League group game with Rosenburg. The unfortunate thing is that fans of Peter Kenyan's "Global Brand" Chelsea did not actually know about it at that stage. They just didn't bother turning up. Word of advice Peter. The local Bingo hall was turning people away that night. Get yourself down there and start giving out a few tickets to next time. London is a cosmopolitan city and you might even get a few non-English people in to boost your "Global" status.
• Leicester City have to be granted a mention this week. By allowing Nottingham Forest to score first, and return the scoreline to what it was when the first game was abandoned due to the heart attack sustained by City's Clive Clarke, they reminded us that there is a perspective in the game that should always be maintained. Congratulations to City for reinforcing the message that football is simply a sport to be enjoyed by spectators and fans and no more than that.
• Two issues have come to our attention this week concerning football kits and we feel compelled to share them with you. The ceaseless exploitation of supporters in relation to the price and frequency of updating of replica kits has, of course, gone on for some time. "Well its just supply and demand", we hear you say. Well, fair point if you are of the hard-nosed school who can continue to ignore the pleas of your children. But not to be content with that, have you noticed the increasing number of kits around that are specifically designed to include a space for a number and a name? In fact, not just designed to include them, but actually deliberately made to look pretty stupid without them. Just another carefully executed plan to squeeze a little bit more out of the long-suffering football supporter. Secondly, Benfica's pink away kit in the Champions League this week. We have it on good authority from connections in the fashion industry that the colour trends in fashion are often purely determined by the availability and cost of specific dyes. Does this mean that we can look forward to a plethora of pastel pink football strips or is this Benfica's attempt to try and attract the pink pound to the Stadium of Light?
• Your current writer was lucky enough to attend a Champions League game this week. Plenty of things stand out at these events, not least of which the difference in the European game versus the domestic game. But what stood out for me was the referee. Like the players, the refs should be Europe's elite also and of course they are. But the control, the calmness and the constant willingness to let the game flow where possible was a joy to watch and something we really should be encouraging more in our own domestic game.