Smear campaign against Jose is petty and wrong

I WAS determined to make my column “upbeat” this week, but I have struggled to find anything to be upbeat about. As expected “Ten Cate” joined us from Ajax — much to the relief of their supporters.

I am surprised this man has chosen to take the job of an assistant coach — especially as an assistant to someone like Avram Grant. Ten Cate has served his apprenticeship — at Barcelona — which then paved the way for him to go on to be a manager. It seems like a backward step of substantial proportions, not only to go back to being an assistant, but assistant to a man who is significantly less qualified than he is.

But then I suppose Ten Cate himself cannot really be lauded for his achievements; the optimists amongst the Chelsea faithful are believing the blurb that he was the real force behind Barça’s Champions League triumph in 2006; those of us of a more pessimistic persuasion cannot get past the fact that Ajax have not only failed to qualify for the Champions League, but have even been knocked out of the UEFA Cup.

One thing I do like about Ten Cate is that apparently he has been known to settle work issues by a good old fashioned fight — now that does sound like a laugh. He looks a mean sod.

There had better not be any sensitive souls amongst the training or playing staff as the Tom Jones lookalike has also managed to leave one former member of staff needing psychiatric treatment for two years. So we have Grant and Ten Cate, an intriguing team . . . a man with all the personality of a bread roll, working with a guy who seems to have learnt all his traits from Attila the Hun. Dull it will not be.

This weekend we face Middlesbrough, a team which has turned us over twice in recent years, and then we can approach our next home game with a real sense of irony.

In the next run-out at the Bridge we’ll be welcoming a Man City side flying high under the stewardship of one Sven Goran Eriksson.

Many of you will remember Chelsea’s (Kenyon’s) clumsy attempts to sign up the Slimey Swede while Ranieri was still playing the roll of “Dead Man Walking” with such dignity.

We told the board exactly where to stick Sven in no uncertain terms — would we have been so rash if offered his services following Mourinho’s departure had we known that we were going to be left with the booby prize? I would still have been uncomfortable had he rocked up to take the hot seat in SW6, but no one can argue with the job he is doing at City. It will be interesting to see if it is just down to luck, an extended period of new manager syndrome or whether he is the real deal and City are up there at the end of the season.

The little that I have seen of them is that they have become an organised and disciplined team overnight — something that can certainly not be said of us.

I haven’t done very well making this an upbeat article have I? Someone said to me that I have to look at all things relatively, and that although we may be worse off that two years ago, we are much better off than 20 years ago and of course he is right. But that isn’t the point here is it? Dante described the nine levels of Hell and by my reckoning we must be now in the 6th Circle, among the Heretics, judging by what has been in the papers the last few weeks. There seems to be a very clearly defined smear campaign against our recent ex-manager — something confirmed by publicist Max Clifford.

When someone likes Clifford identifies this you know that there must be some heavyweights behind it as he is usually of the “all publicity is good publicity” school of thought. The campaign has not been fair, subtle nor necessary — it’s not as if Mourinho is going around telling tales out of school.

This behaviour from certain parts of the Stamford Bridge regime is petty and just adds to the image of deceit and dishonesty that many have of our club. It doesn’t do anything for the faithful either — I love Chelsea and I always will, I just don’t like them very much at the moment.

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