Mourinho or Klopp? It’s your choice!

With interim manager Rafael Benitez looking as interim as ever despite the 4-1 win at home to Wigan, the question for the Chelsea board isn’t an unusual one. The Blues are looking for a candidate to take on one of the most unpredictable and dangerous jobs in football: the Chelsea Football Club full-time manager. Two names have stood out from all of the potential targets: Mourinho and Klopp.

Mourinho is the fans’ favourite and also top of the bookmakers’ list to be our manager next season. But Klopp is a serious candidate and musn’t be taken for granted. His success  at Dortmund speaks for itself. Let’s take a look at both of these top-class managers and you can make up your mind  who’s best.

Let’s start with the man who needs no introduction in the footballing world, one of the best coaches in history. Jose Mourinho, also known as Mou or The Special One, is remembered by all of us Chelsea fans for his heroic successes, particular style of play, unpredictable coaching and of course his humungus ego and memorable press conferences. Jose has won 16 trophies at 4 clubs during 11 years as a head coach : his success-ratio is 67% wins, 20% draws, 13% defeats. Nobody could deny that the return of The Special One to the Bridge would be great for Chelsea and the Premier League. It would surely bring back a lot of attention to English football, since the media talk about Mou all the time. Of course a lot of players admire and respect Mourinho. He always brought some of his favourite talents with him when he changed clubs and he could bring some good ones to the Blues again. One thing you can be sure of with Jose : he will bring silverware. No matter what. But Mou’s severe policies will probably get Torres out faster than you can say his name. He has also been known for giving the youth players a chance ( Varane at the moment is marvelous at Real Madrid ) and this could really benefit players like McEacheran who have a promising future.

What are the disadvantages of bringing back The Special One?

His way of seeing football and his coaching techniques will be contradictory to our revolution last  summer, and we are just coming out from “ The Mourinho Era “. Jose encourages a defensive style, very aggressive and quick on the counter-attack. But wasn’t our summer shopping spree aimed at making Chelsea play like Barcelona? I think players like Moses, Hazard and Mata could fit in the Jose style but I severely doubt that Oscar, Marin and Piazon will benefit from this type of football. And now here comes my big worry: Mourinho is unpredictable and his ego can become a big problem. He is ripping apart the Real Madrid dressing room at the moment. He can either push players to become the best in the world or discreetly push them away from the first team. Mourinho is a leader and a particular one: if you don’t agree with him, you’re out. This must be taken seriously, because he destroyed Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona last season but now is assured to leave the Casa Blanca in the summer because of the dreadful results and the fights with the owners and key-players. But despite all this, I could hardly be disappointed if Jose Mourinho came back home. He is an English football lover, we love him and he has Blue blood ( Porto, Chelsea, Inter ).

Jurgen Klopp is the underdog. Kloppo, as most Germans prefer to call him, is the current Borussia Dortmund manager. Very popular in Germany because of his humour, charisma and an appearance that makes him like your funny uncle, he can achieve a lot with very little. He said earlier in his career that his dream was to coach in the Bundesliga and in England. Klopp has 4 trophies and has achieved promotion once in his 12 years of coaching. His win record is 48%, 27% draws, 25% defeats. He brought Mainz into the Bundesliga and then decided to join BVB. There, he revolutionized the club by taking out the older key players and brought in top talents in football. It took only two years for his young team to win the Bundesliga well ahead of enemies Bayern Munich, and he did it again the following season by adding the German Cup to his achievements. Kloppo has managed to bring up some exciting talents to Dortmund and has now made it one of the most appreciated clubs in Europe and a candidate to win the Champions League. Klopp focuses on the human approach with his players. He always tries to be optimistic and thinks that a defeat can sometimes be better than a win, as you learn more from it and come out much stronger next time. He says that he has a different way to talk to every player and always tries to keep a good relationship with his team. This seems to be working very well for Borussia’s young squad. If players like Hazard, Oscar, Mata, KDB can benefit from this – just like Götze, Reus, Gündogan – then they will certainly become among the world’s top players. Jurgen Klopp encourages aggressive pressure on opponents, quick counter-attack and quick passing. This could suit the summer signings of the Champions of Europe as most of them are fast, tricky and enjoy the 1-2’s. On the other hand, Kloppo’s philosophy doesn’t always help for big-time games, and he doesn’t want to change his style of coaching. Jurgen Klopp is also unproven in any other country than Germany. But as the Bundesliga style is fairly close to the Premier League’s I don’t think this is a big issue. He will certainly bring a better image to our beloved club, which is needed to be honest. Meanwhile, Klopp has said he wanted to be “Guardiola’s next Mourinho” or chief tormenter.

Will it be a fairy-tale reconciliation with the owner as Mou accepts a glorious comeback to the Bridge to help us get some trophies back to Southwest London? Or will Klopp take the challenge and become the new hero at Chelsea Football Club, and show he can be one of the next best managers in the world?

Who would you prefer? What do you think would be best for the club in the long term? Let us know what you think!