Sport & Fitness

To launch a DVD entitled ‘Blue Revolution’ in the same week that the man responsible for much of that revolution was finally run out of town was smart work, even for a club as badly run as Chelsea. When the dust has settled – and that could take some time given that Jose Mourinho has departed in the same way he arrived, like an H-bomb – then the club’s numerous chiefs and yes-men could do worse than sit down and watch this documentary of the past three seasons and ask themselves where it all went wrong.
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The very fact that the club’s own filmed propaganda takes as its starting point the arrival of Mourinho rather than owner Roman Abramovich says it all. This was the moment that Chelsea’s achievements started to match their ambition. The mood at Stamford Bridge switched from also-rans to winners overnight and the first Premier League title was won at a canter. Mourinho rightly took credit for this fundamental change to the club’s DNA and he is centre stage throughout ‘Blue Revolution’. He dominates the screen whenever he appears, whether in training, in press conferences or at matches.

One of the many reasons given for his leaving was that his team did not play pretty enough football for the refined taste of Roman Abramovich (first match: April 24, 2003). But as the film shows, Chelsea were brilliant that season: sharp in attack, stubborn in defence. Nobody played better football – not as consistently, nor as successfully, nor at such a high level – for 18 months. Yet even as Barcelona were swept aside 4-2 at the Bridge, accusations were made that Chelsea were boring.

As is often the case, the second title was less spectacular. And when a breathtaking Barcelona side won the Champions League against an Arsenal team overburdened with critical praise, rumour emerged that Abramovich was less enamoured by success in its own right. A series of feuds and off-pitch controversies (alluded to but largely glossed over in the film) also blighted Chelsea’s image, and this may have been critical: the world audience at which ‘Blue Revolution’ is aimed would not be romanced by the flood of negative stories emerging from Stamford Bridge, many a direct result of Mourinho’s nose for controversy as well as testament to the club’s hapless PR skills.

So the meddling began, and Mourinho’s position was thereafter consistently undermined. However, little of that comes out in the film, which is relentlessly upbeat, even when showing a Chelsea punk in New York watching his team crash out of the Champions League to Liverpool. But we do see the seeds of Mourinho’s exit being sown by chief executive Peter Kenyon when he claims that the elusive Abramovich, who barely features, wants Chelsea to win the Champions League twice in a decade – and to do so stylishly.

Would any other club make so bold a public demand of their manager? It’s a test that neither Alex Ferguson nor Arsene Wenger would have passed. Yet Abramovich seemed to be demanding a team that had the domestic dominance of Manchester United, the panache of Arsenal and the European success of Liverpool, little appreciating that these things take decades to achieve and are impossible without complete stability.

Mourinho, a football man, understood this. He also understood that the more pressure he was placed under, the less likely it was that Chelsea would play the sort of football Abramovich craved.

‘Blue Revolution’ shows Chelsea fans what they have lost. The celebrations after the two titles will be hard to watch, but it’s the footage of the jubilant players in the Cardiff dressing room after the Carling Cup victory against Arsenal that really sticks in the throat. John Terry, who has never been the same since, joins the fun having checked himself out of hospital after getting kicked in the head and is embraced by a jubilant Drogba, who screams: ‘My captain!’ Meanwhile, Mourinho, ever the cool bigger brother, looks on.

The togetherness, mutual respect, belief and determination are there for all to see. One way or another, it’s going to be a hell of a sequel.

Blue Revolution’ , EMI, £19.99.

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