Am I the only one scratching my head over this Juande-Ramos-to-Chelsea-if-something-happens-with-Jose-Mourinho story? Guillem Balague of Sky Sports claims Fabio Capello told Ramos at a meeting in Madrid a few days ago that he has friends at Chelsea who “think the world of him” and who are lining him up to replace Mourinho if the latter, for one reason or other, moves on. Now, since when has Capello become a managerial recruitment consultant for Chelsea when he himself needs a job, having just been sacked by the most notorious Mickey Mouse outfit in world football? How naive is Ramos to sit in Sevilla and wait for that call from Roman Abramovich when there is no obvious vacancy at Stamford Bridge now or in the near future? Or, is this just another journalistic ploy to unsettle the Chelsea hierarchy once more now that peace has broken out between Jose and Roman?
Perhaps Ramos is so confident that by the end of his present contract term at Sevilla in June next year, Chelsea would be in need of a new manager and he, in a list of one, would be the one to fill that vacancy. And maybe he possesses an iron-clad guarantee that he will remain the shining managerial star he’s been in these past two seasons of dominating the UEFA and Spanish cups. However, if he thinks winning the Champions League the Mourinho way (with a medium-sized club with a medium-sized budget) is a cakewalk, I have a sneaky feeling that reality will dawn harshly after AEK Athens.
I don’t know, but it seems to me that our interest in Daniel Alves is having so many intended and unintended consequences. The impression being created by this story is simple – we are behind the managerial uncertainties at Sevilla, using Tottenham as front. And why else must we be doing so, but to further rattle Seà±or Jose Maria del Nido and his board by opening up another front in our ‘war’ with him (though indirectly) over one of their best players. The guy must feel he’s under a Chelsea siege right now. Not only are we gunning for his star player, we’re lining up his star manager as well! It’s a virtual certainty now that when clubs catch cold anywhere in Europe, Chelsea have got to be responsible somehow for their state.
But, perhaps there could be a simpler explanation. Just as players looking for bigger pay from their employers use the threat of an imminent Chelsea swoop (real or imagined) to get their way, Ramos and his handlers might simply be doing the same to untie the purse strings of the incredibly parsimonious Jose Maria del Nido. If this is the case, I certainly won’t be complaining.
