Ferguson backs Mourinho to find a solution at Chelsea
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho will find a way to turn the champions’ dreadful 2015-16 season around and Roman Abramovich would be wrong to sack him, according to Manchester United managerial legend Alex Ferguson.
The Scot, who led United to 13 Premier League titles and five FA Cups, believes the Stamford Bridge coach will emerge from the current crisis, even though it is the first time he has had to cope with such a situation.
Chelsea are 14th in the Premier League with only 15 points – two clear of the bottom three – after their opening 15 matches this campaign.
Ferguson has recently spoken to Mourinho and felt there were signs the worst has passed for Chelsea, even though they suffered a dramatic setback when they lost 1-0 to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt London event, he said: “For Jose, I think all good leaders will eventually find a solution.
“I think he will. I think he will find a solution and I think you will get back to normal, which is not looking great at the moment but I know the guy and I know the work he has done in football so I can’t see it lasting long – I can’t see it.
“[Abramovich] has sacked so many coaches in the last 10 years that I am sure he has learned by it. He has to trust and have confidence Jose can turn around.
“There is no point in sacking one of the best coaches of all time, he has won the European Cup twice, he has won the league in each country he has managed in, he has won the big trophies.
“I have been watching Jose recently and spoken to him a couple of times – this is the first time he has been confronted with non-success.
“If you look at his whole career there has been nothing but a rise all of the time so for the first time in his life he has had to deal with bad publicity, adversity and that is a challenge for him, but there are signs he is getting back to a balanced level although they lost on Saturday.
“I watched the match and they could have won by a few goals, but they lost and then he still has to face that sort of negative publicity.”
Ferguson feels the pressure on managers at the highest level is increasing with every new season.
He continued: “Football today is such a big financial industry, the television deal is billions, there is the press involvement, there is pressure from their own fans. It is a very high-risk industry.
“It is never easy for a manager in present-day football because the media attention is huge.
“The sort of average time a manager lasts now is a year throughout the whole country and that is not a big time.”
