Going back is a gamble Jose – look at Allison and Dalglish

Posted Friday, April 19, 2013 by The Sun

BACK FOR MOUR ... Jose has been linked with a return to Stamford Bridge

MALCOLM ALLISON has been called the Jose Mourinho of his day.

Except Big Mal never resorted to the latter’s overt gamesmanship or poked anyone in the eye.

And at an hour when Allison may have been returning home with a bottle of Dom Perignon under his arm, Mourinho can be found heading for the training ground.

But there are similarities. An outstanding coach, flamboyant, outspoken and always the centre of attention, Allison won four major trophies with Manchester City between 1967 and 1970.

He left in 1972 before returning seven years later.

It was an unmitigated disaster with Allison, squandering a British record £1.4million on Wolves’ Steve Daley, lasting just 12 months. Allison should have probably followed his own instincts after his first meeting with chairman Peter Swales when he said:

“I looked at him, saw the comb-over, the England blazer and the suede shoes and knew it just wasn’t going to work out.”

Over the years, there would be similar stories with Howard Kendall at Everton and Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. It’s never the same the second time around.

Few Chelsea fans, though, predict anything other than a rekindling of the old magic should Mourinho take up the reins once more.

In Mourinho’s favour, unlike Allison, Kendall and Dalglish on their own return to their spiritual homes, is that Chelsea still have the players.

But there is something still not quite right about this.

Yes, Mourinho is a serial winner. But then again, so is Roman Abramovich.

In his nine years at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea have won three titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the Champions League.

They have also had nine managers.

It would be no leap of the imagination to suggest Abramovich believes he is the man ultimately responsible for all this success.

That Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League and Avram Grant was only a John Terry missed penalty away from also achieving the feat will only have reinforced his belief.

After the fall-out of Mourinho’s departure, does Abramovich really have to re-employ him — as some sort of sop to fans he has never taken much notice of anyway?

Yes, Mourinho is the bookies favourite. And only last week it’s claimed he told an associate the only options next season are Madrid or London. That it will not be Manchester or Paris.

Yet if things between Abramovich and Mourinho really had been patched up some time ago why did the Chelsea owner pursue Pep Guardiola for so long?

Then there was all the talk about Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp.

And now it’s Malaga’s 59-year-old Manuel Pellegrini.

Why do fresh names keep being thrown into the ring? Perhaps, the Mourinho deal is not quite all done and dusted.

Pellegrini, on the other hand, would be an ideal choice.

He turned small clubs like Villarreal and Malaga into unlikely Champions League contenders and, though he only had a year at the Bernabeu, Real Madrid amassed a then-record club points tally of 96 in finishing runners-up to Barcelona.

The Chilean does his best work on the training ground and believes in flair players. His trans-Continental knowledge also fits into Abramovich’s long-term strategy of building a team around Brazilian and Spanish players.

Not such a bad option. And none of the histrionics.