Chelsea are reportedly considering Juande Ramos as a replacement for Jose Mourinho, with the former short-term Tottenham and Real Madrid manager being pegged as an interim manager for the club if they choose to sack to sack their current manager.
Club owner Roman Abramovich has held talks with Chelsea’s board over the past 24 hours regarding Mourinho’s future, with it seeming increasingly likely that the 52-year-old’s neck is on the line following an awful season for the club. Though no official statement has been made by Chelsea, it is being reported that Juande Ramos’ name has been mentioned in these conversations, with the 61-year-old free agent being considered as a caretaker manager until a full-time replacement is found.
According to the Times (the article is locked behind a paywall), the meetings held by the Chelsea board have centred around whether Mourinho should stay on as manager for the club’s upcoming home game against Sunderland on Saturday, or if he should be dismissed immediately, indicating that Chelsea may have already made their decision and that Mourinho could well be ousted from the club he carried to Premier League victory last season.
It was previously thought that Chelsea might keep Mourinho in his position until the January transfer window, as the manager could have helped turn around Chelsea’s fortunes with a batch of new signings. However, with the club sitting just outside of the relegation zone, these new reports suggest that Abramovich is not interested in waiting for an improvement, and wants to make changes to the club as soon as possible.
Chelsea currently sit in 16th place in the Premier League table, and while Abramovich previously gave his full support to Mourinho back in October, it seems that he is now growing increasingly frustrated at Chelsea’s considerable lack of improvement.
Juande Ramos previously took the helm at Tottenham during their worst ever league campaign start in 2008, acquiring two points from eight matches before being sacked. He was later placed in charge of Real Madrid in a reasonably successful campaign in 2008/09, but his contract was not renewed after his team suffered four consecutive losses. He then moved to Russia, taking the role of CSKA Moscow’s manager, before being sacked again the day after a 3-1 defeat to rivals FC Moscow.
