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Is Jose Mourinho Special Enough To Win The Champions League With Chelsea?

On the 2nd of June 2013, great anticipation was felt amongst Chelsea fans, as their saviour was set to return to the first large European club he managed, as Florentino Perez confirmed that Jose Mourinho was set to return to Chelsea. ‘The Special One’s’ first reign at Stamford Bridge started well, but ended on bad terms with control freak owner Roman Abramovich as another one of the Russian’s expensive signings, Andriy Shevchenko, failed to shine in London, and inevitably, Mourinho was blamed. The Portuguese tactician claimed that he didn’t want the former Balon d’Or winner and as he didn’t fit into his system, and in the end it seems that Mourinho was right.

He then left England for Inter Milan, and after 2 stellar seasons, the second being a treble winning campaign in which his side disposed of Chelsea, he was on the move again, this time to Real Madrid. After winning the Champions League with Porto and Inter, Perez’s obsession with ‘La Decima’ led the coach to the Spanish capital, but the hype didn’t quite measure up to what would happen next, Madrid labelled as defensive and negative and several fall-outs with big name players such as Iker Casillas seemingly put the final nail in his coffin. It seemed that he could save his Madrid career with a Champions League win, but a 4-1 humbling at Signal Iduna Park left the task almost impossible, although Los Blancos recorded an impressive 2-0 win at the Santiago Bernebeau, it was too little too late, and Mourinho was replaced by Paris Saint Germain boss Carlo Ancelotti.

Though 4 years have now passed since his last stint in London, and the pressure and expectations are high, though it shouldn’t be quite as high as it is, as Chelea’s squad is mixed with some of the best players in the Premier League like Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Oscar and Andre Schurrle, and goalkeeper Petr Cech is still performing at a high level despite approaching his 32nd birthday and suffering from constant back problems. Though the Chelsea defence is ageing and underperforming and the strikers are lacking the talent a decent Europa League side has at their disposal.

With this taken into consideration, Chelsea are currently no match for the Real Madrid’s, Barcelona’s, Juventus’ and Bayern Munich’s of this world, and will need some heavy investment in January if they are going to succeed this season. The signings of Fabio Coentrao, Diego Costa, Eliaquim Mangala, Clement Grenier and Jorginho would take Chelsea the step up they need to compete with Europe’s finest, but whether Abramovich will be willing to spend around £100m more on his squad is debatable after several expensive flops.

Mourinho has proven himself in the Champions League several times already, winning the trophy on 2 occasions and leading Chelsea and Real Madrid to semi-finals 6 times, he has almost as good a grasp on Europe as current Madrid boss Ancelotti, who also failed to win Chelsea the Champions League trophy. All in all, Mourinho is special, and with a bit of investment he can win Chelsea the European crown, but in Chelsea’s current state, it is quite literally, impossible