Chelsea and Mourinho, Leicester city and Ranieiri..Do footballers now have so much power in the football game? (Editorial)

On Monday night, Leicester city shocked the football world by beating Liverpool 3-1, and the performance was do dogged and reminiscent of last season's performances that led them to a historic premier league title win.


It was their first game following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri and the installment of Craig Shakespeare as caretaker boss, moving the club out of the Premier League bottom three as two goals from Jamie Vardy and a Danny Drinkwater strike saw off Liverpool.





It was gathered that top players in the club like Marc Albrighton, captain Wes Morgan, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel met with the club's owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha following their 2-1 Champions League defeat in Seville last week Wednesday to demand for his sack, saying they didn't believe in his abilities anymore, and then on Thursday he was sacked.



Flash back to December 2015, when Chelsea sacked Jose Mourinho, their most successful manager in the history of the club after a run of poor results, just 7 months after winning the EPL title and capital one cup for the club..



Reports had it that Mourinho had a broken down relationship with top stars at the club like Eden Hazard, John Mikel Obi, John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Diego Costa. It was also reported that this players contacted owner Roman Abramovich (who they have his phone number) to complain that they didn't like Mourinho's coaching style again.

That season he was branded the 'unhappy one', a different and totally negative nickname compared to his well known 'the special one'.



The nail in the coffin was after Chelsea's 2-1 loss to Leicester city, the defence looked shabby, and there was no hunger in the eyes of the players as they lost to a vibrant Leicester side.

According to DailyMail sports writer, Martin Samuel,
'Losing the dressing room is an old football cliche, but after Leicester it is fair to say Mourinho had less of a future in man management than Captain Bligh the day The Bounty set sail from Tahiti.'


Mourinho after the Leicester city loss attacked his players:
“My board, my club I don’t think it’s right that I go to them and say these players are not good, we need to spend £50m or £100m or whatever, I don’t think it’s fair,” he said. “We have these players and it’s with these players we have to go. The players that are not performing well, they must feel attacked in their pride and their self-esteem and they have to do everything to get results in a humble way.
“I don’t think in this moment they can feel they are top players or they can feel they are superstars. They have to look at the Leicester boys and to feel these are the stars, these are the top players. They have to look to Sunderland and Watford and say: ‘We are at the same level. I am not the superstar, I am not the player of the season, I am not the world champion, I am not the Premier League champion. At this moment, I am at your level.’”

Leicester city players too are now regarded on social media as snakes..Anyone who watched Monday night's thrashing of Liverpool, will know that this was a particularly different side from the one who played shabby football the last nine months. Bar N'golo Kante, Leicester city still had the same crop of players who won them the league last season. While Chelsea in 2016 also had almost the same set of players (bar Didier Drogba) that won them the 2015 premier league title..So is this player power in effect?
Can footballers now decide to 'shut up shop' whenever they feel like, or whenever they want a coach to be sacked?. Some of this players earn as much as £200,000 per week.. It is demanded from them to put their hearts out and fight with all body,mind and soul whenever they put on the jersey of their club.. If they can't fight for the exorbitant fees they receive as salaries, then at least they should fight for the club crest, the fans who sweat through their pockets to watch them play and the millions of soccer fans who watch them worldwide.

Football needs to get it's sanity back! and soon.... If players feel they can act anyhow and play anyhow knowing that the blame will fall on the coach, then coaches are in for some real trouble.. If not how do you explain a team who won the premier league in 2015 (Chelsea), languishing in 16th position in 2016, or a team who won the EPL in 2016 (Leicester) in 17th position, 9 months later??.
The game of football doesn't need 'snakes' and if it were possible for players to be sacked instantly like coaches then everyone will sit up...

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