The Game Podcast: Thierry Henry interview and The Great Mourinho Debate

Extreme times call for extreme measures. And with the twin extremes of Jose Mourinho's departure from Chelsea and Thierry Henry stopping by for a chat with Guillem, we opted for a bi-thematic (as opposed to monothematic or multi-thematic) show. Guillem, Bill and I have not one, but two guests: Alyson Rudd and Israeli journalist, Shaul Adar, perhaps the journalist who knows Avram Grant best on these shores.

Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Correspondent of The Times, spoke to Mourinho shortly after his departure and he drops by to give us his view as well. Matt, like much of the press, admits that he comes down in the Mourinho camp, believing that Chelsea have made a costly mistake in letting him go. I'm not so convinced (and, for once, Guillem agrees with me). Mourinho is a fantastic manager, but his brief at Chelsea was not just to win. The club also asked him to provide attractive, entertaining football and to get along with the high-priced, high-profile staff (Peter Kenyon, Frank Arnesen and others) at the club, guys who were meant to ensure that Chelsea could build success over time, even once Mourinho was gone.

Personally, I think Mourinho came up short on those two counts. Whether it's fair to demand winning AND entertainment is not the issue. Neither is the issue whether it was fair that Mourinho should be surrounded by a cast of thousands, all of whom had some degree of pull with the owner. The point is that, wherever the blame may be, Roman Abramovich felt he was not getting what he paid for.

Alyson indulges in a bit of pop psychology, suggesting that the Russian billionaire is simply bored and perhaps a bit out of sorts following his divorce and maybe, just maybe, parting ways with Mourinho is a way of getting a bit of an adrenaline rush. Still, the one thing we can all agree on is that Mourinho has won the PR war.

Matt argues that the guy who came out of it looking like an idiot was Abramovich, not so much for letting Mourinho go, but for hiring the mysterious Avram Grant to replace him. Shaul sheds some light on why Grant was chosen, dispelling a whole bunch of myths about Grant and his relationship with Abramovich. It's not true, as some have written, that they've been bound at the hip for years and they share some common Russian, Orthododox Jewish heritage. Indeed, as Shaul explains, they only met three years ago, Grant is not an Orthodox Jew and, of course, neither is he Russian. In fact, we can't quite figure out in what language they communicate with each other.

Thierry Henry talks to us about Barcelona, Cesc Fabregas and the fact that Ronaldinho was booed by his own supporters (unsurprisingly, Henry disapproves of this). Henry praises Cesc ("He plays like he's thirty", which, believe me, is a compliment). In fact, Henry is more complimentary of Cesc than Cesc was of Henry in the papers this morning. The chat gives us a chance to take a look at Barcelona and their disappointing start to the season, which has seen both Ronaldinho (and, to a lesser degree, Henry) draw criticism. Guillem makes the point that Messi has supplanted Ronaldinho in the hearts of the Barca faithful and that Ronaldinho hasn't been himself for the past eighteen months. Too much partying? Perhaps. As Guillem says, he's not necessarily partying more than before, it's just that partying at 18 is one thing, doing it at 27, 28 quite another.

So please join us and feel free to join the discussion below. Or, email us at gamepodcast@timesonline.co.uk. We'll do our best to get back to you.

Comments

[reuben anderson]

Fantastic podcast. My only disagreement was with the opinions regarding the attempts on goal, chelsea 4 - man utd 17. This was possibly not, as your commentators suggest a sign of fundamental team problems, but rather down to them playing with 10 men for most of the match at Old Trafford. Shevchenko however cannot any longer play alone up front - he just doesn't have the energy to vie with two centre halves of the quality of Ferdinand and Vidic.

[Gabriele Marcotti]

Jimmy T, you say Mourinho didn't have those restrictions imposed on him at the beginning. But I think you'll find he's no longer on his original contract. His deal was extended and he accepted it.
If you can't get along with the people around you (or they can't get along with you) and if the owner isn't enjoying himself, it's understandable if he makes a change.

[Bharath Janardhan]

Wow, talk about a doom 'n gloom podcast this week! Easy to see why though, what with Chelsea deciding to become the biggest laughing stock in the world.
Regarding the whole "who's gonna win the titles", etc, I feel we'll have to wait till the Christmas period. Just a couple of weeks ago, everyone was hailing Liverpool as premiership champions (hello Guillem :)), and its still too early to talk about Arsenal.
It all comes tumbling down regardless, and I find this isn't only in England. After Real Madrid's amazing performance against Villarreal, when they won 5-0, everyone was going nuts, Bayern Munich had a comedown after their blistering start to the season, etc.
I think the only time to truly judge where a club is in terms of hunting for honours, is when they suffer a couple of defeats and show us whether they have what it takes to bounce back.
This could work out to Man Utd's favour, as they are, by popular opinion, playing badly. Heck, even when they beat Chelsea, they didn't get much airtime because everyone was talking about the shenanigans off the field. Best placed to have a level headed run of games in my opinion, what with the lower level of opposition coming up in the next few weeks.

[Zulfy]

Jimmy T you say:
"You'd both love him to boss your clubs, as would 99% of English fans"

Considering about 20% of English fans are probably Arsenal, United or Liverpool fans that can't possibly be true.

[Jimmy Thornton]

By the way, I think it's a shame you've decided to start pre-moderating these blogs. It stunts the debate, and I don't remember any swearing or abuse previously. There was criticism though, obviously too much for the Times...

[Jimmy Thornton]

So you both think it was a good idea to sack Mourinho do you, the only reason being he didn't fulfil the idiot owner's ridiculous criteria. As far as I'm aware the owner didn't have these demands at the beginning, and if Jose'd known he'd have people like Arnesen and entertaining football philosophies imposed on him then I'm sure he'd have gone elsewhere (Liverpool being one of many options).

Mourinho in both achievement and charisma is up there with the all time greats like Shankly and Clough. You'd both love him to boss your clubs, as would 99% of English fans. More likely you wanted him sacked so he could liven up your leagues instead (Ballague's been campaigning for it for months).

[D Shortland]

I thought you were very kind to JT - the boy's become an egomaniac, asking for £130,000 a week for 9 years with a clause to become manager at the end, then throwing a fit just because the manager dared to question his fitness. How would he have coped with Brian Clough? I thought Terry was supposed to be a stout yeoman type. I now worry about his influence on England - Beckham type ego-fests were supposed to be in the past (I know, I know).

Then there's Jose saying he doesn't want to wash his dirty linen in public, yet leaking all this stuff about JT and the two traitors.

[Zulfy]

Nice one, that was the best pod thus far.

The main thing that baffled me with regards Mourinho's departure is certainly the poor timing. In effect Roman is prepared to sacrifice a whole season just to get shot of the Special One. It seems absurd considering that Chelsea with the way they played under Mourinho were perfectly built to win the Champions League and in my opinion it was only a matter of time until they did so.
If Roman wishes to impose a more expansive style of footie at the Bridge (and hey credit to him) he must understand that Chelsea's chances of winning the Champions League will significantly shrink, because they don't have the personnel to be successful playing that way. In a way what I'm getting at is that I feel the Chelsea squad after Jose's 3 years at the helm have been Mourinhofied and therefore it may take a player exodus for Roman to get his way i.e. entertaining football.