Dutch great Ruud Gullit springs to Jose Mourinho’s defence

Dubai: Former Chelsea player and coach Ruud Gullit has sprung to the defence of the under-fire Jose Mourinho and suggested ways for the embattled manager to stem the rot during the current English Premier League season.

Gullit, who signed on a free transfer at Stamford Bridge in 1995 – first as player and later as coach in place of Glenn Hoddle – was in Dubai as master of ceremony at the second annual Maritime Standard Awards scheduled to be held at Atlantis The Palm late on Monday.

“Have no doubt that Jose [Mourinho] is probably the best coach we have. He has everything at his disposal, but success has been difficult to come this season due to certain reasons, and he needs to take a look at these,” Gullit told Gulf News while taking time off from his rehearsal for the awards night yesterday.

“It is normal for teams to be in a situation that Chelsea is in. People search you out if you win, and then people want to beat you all the time. They play with not 100 per cent, but 200 per cent against you. So you have to figure out how to deal with it,” Gullit observed.

“Of course, nobody likes to lose, but here it is a case of how an individual takes defeat and stays reconciled with the situation that he is in. When things are not going well, then you have to stay humble in defeat,” he suggested.

Though he had limited success at Chelsea in the league, Gullit did well to link up with players such as Mark Hughes and Dan Petrescu to help the blues reach the semi-final of the FA Cup that season. His switch from sweeper to midfield saw Gullit improve drastically and he went on to finish runner-up to Eric Cantona as ‘Footballer of the Year’.

Though the odds are stacked heavily against Mourinho, the 52-year-old Portuguese looks certain to be given more time to turn around the club’s poor season so far. Mourinho is convinced he can improve the Blues’ fortunes by getting rid of under-performing players during the winter transfer window.

Chelsea’s season could end up costing owner Roman Abramovich £100m (Dh552 million) - including a £10m pay-off should he sack Mourinho, £15m compensation to recruit preferred replacement Diego Simeone from Atletico Madrid and transfer fees to overhaul the squad.

“Mourinho is a fantastic coach. But at the moment his attitude works against him, and that’s a pity for him, and for Chelsea. I am sure he will get back into his stride again and he will be able to get these players back on track again,” Gullit said.

“The more you kick around, the more people you get against you and you make more enemies, especially with the referees at the moment. Football is pretty unfair. Sometimes you get things for you and sometimes you get things against you and this is part of the game,” he added.

If that transformation does take place, an ever bigger task for Mourinho will be to get back Chelsea’s aura. “The fact is that in all this, other teams are no longer afraid of Chelsea, and that can be difficult to handle. So things need to be worked one step at a time so that the team starts performing on the field first and then bring back the feeling of being invincible,” he suggested.

“The best way to handle the situation will be to stay humble. It is better to be human and apologise to everyone. We all make mistakes. He should just accept the situation. It is a human reaction that people get fed up with moaning all the time. I understand him, but it doesn’t work and it doesn’t help anyone,” he said.

“Football is a game of mistakes or else all games would end goalless. Therefore you can’t all the time point your finger to certain decisions. People get fed up. He [Mourinho] is right about some of the decisions, but here it is about how to take it. You can’t all the time continue putting pressure on everybody and expect what you want. The more you do it then the more people will go against you,” Gullit added.