Jose Mourinho may have had one eye on next season when he ripped into his Chelsea players against Norwich.
As Jose Mourinho launched into his half-time rant at his Chelsea stars during the game against Norwich City, he may well have already written off the Premier League title.
Mourinho picked on a couple of players, with Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah mentioned in reports, but was it frustration or a small piece of genius on the part of the Portuguese coach?
Mourinho has done well in his first season back at Chelsea. His side have been there or there abouts in the Premier League all season and were three goals off a place in the Champions League final.
Chelsea have plenty of loan stars due to return to the club this summer and what better way for the boss to encourage competition for places than to rile up his current first team stars.
He’ll want a rich mix of youth and experience giving him plenty of selection problems heading into next season, which can create beneficial effects for the first team.
Mourinho will respond in the same way he has done to setbacks in the past and similarly to how Sir Alex Ferguson approached every season without a trophy during his time at Manchester United.
Mourinho putting the frighteners into his players will create a mental scar.
The boss isn’t happy and he’ll want his players to subconsciously link his rant and the lack of trophies that the Blues have notched up on all fronts in the current campaign.
In short, he’ll want his players to think ‘I don’t want to go through that again, it’s time to start working harder for victories’.
Mourinho is in the fortunate position at a club like Chelsea that if the players don’t respond as he’d be hoping following the outburst then he has options.
There is plenty of young talent coming back to the club he could give a chance to and the Blues enjoy sufficient resources in the transfer market to be able to make big changes.
It should be a fascinating summer.
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