Demba Ba only spent one season with Mourinho, but that’s one season more with full access to the methods of Mourinho’s madness than most of the rest of us. So when he speaks of the former Chelsea manager’s practices and expectations, we probably should take note.
“I thought Chelsea would continue with Mourinho. It’s rare to see Mourinho manage three years at the same team. And this has confirmed that. His methods are exhausting, very tiring. He’s someone who likes to win and when he loses, you could say that the sky comes crashing down on his head.”
“Things get complicated when he loses because he gets annoyed. It looks like his face is overcome with anger, although this is probably not the case in reality. It’s because he is a winner – when he loses, it affects him. This is not bad – he’s proven, he has won an enormous amount of titles. Whether you like him or not, he does not leave you indifferent – though I’m speaking of him as a coach, not a man.”
“He’s not someone who is there to give confidence to his players. He is there to get what he can out of his players. He expects you to motivate yourself. If you lack confidence, all he does is put you on the bench.”
-Demba Ba; source: RMC via Evening Standard
Demba Ba’s words certainly put some of the other comments we’ve been hearing from the likes of Didier Drogba and others about self-motivating players and dressing room leaders and all of Mourinho’s lamentations about determination and (serial) winners and strong little horses and such. Mourinho’s approach to man management does work wonders in the short-term, but requires strong personalities to not get a little tiring in the long-term, especially without any new blood coming in (though that didn’t seem to affect the likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, and Co). It also requires the utmost dedication to the cause, and when that breaks down even just a little bit, we end up in the current predicament.
That said, Mourinho’s tenure at Chelsea was just about bang-on average for the lifespan of any given football manager at any given football club. At the time of his firing, he was the fourth (4th!) longest-serving manager in the Premier League. That’s modern football for ya. We had all hoped for a Mourinho-led dynasty, but we might have to settle for an Emenalo-led one.
