Is Jose Mourinho's row with Eva Carneiro a deflection tactic?
Thursday 13 August 2015 10:12, UK
Jose Mourinho’s much-publicised fall-out with Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro is threatening to hamper the club’s season before they have even registered their first win.
But why has the situation erupted so much and what is the final outcome likely to be?
Sky Sports’ Andrew Dickson analyses the key points of a row that has rocked Stamford Bridge…
What does Mourinho believe Carneiro has done wrong?
Mourinho’s complaint is that by entering the field of play to tend to Eden Hazard during stoppage time in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Swansea, the club’s medics left Chelsea in a vulnerable position.
The player was obliged to go off after treatment and, with his team already down to 10 men following Thibaut Courtois’ red card, Mourinho felt they became more susceptible to counter-attacks from Garry Monk’s visitors as a result of Hazard being briefly forced to the touchline.
It wasn’t just Carneiro who ran on. Club physio Jon Fearn joined her and it’s worth noting Mourinho spoke about his medical staff as a whole rather than just Carneiro in his post-match protestations to Sky Sports. Behind closed doors, however, Carneiro has been banned from the bench and will only work at the club's training ground in Cobham, Surrey.
While he hasn’t said as much in public, Mourinho appears to hold Carneiro responsible for what happened, as was clear from the way he lambasted her as she returned to the technical area after treating Hazard.
Does he have a point or has he overreacted?
Mourinho believed Hazard was simply tired rather than injured and was ultimately correct. He argued if the physio is to go on the pitch when his team is at risk of losing, it has to be with good reason, saying: "Even if you are a kit man, doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game.
"You have to know you have one player less and when you go to the pitch to assist a player, you have to make sure your player has a serious injury. I was sure he hadn't a serious problem. He had a knock, he was very tired. But my medical department – on an impulse – was naive and left me with eight outfield players in a counter-attack after a set piece."
Mourinho’s frustration with the situation is understandable but it had no bearing on the final result. Carneiro is one of the highest-profile doctors in the Premier League and the Chelsea manager will surely have known what level of attention his actions would draw from the media.
The club’s record with injuries last season was excellent and Carneiro is a popular figure among the players. She has been an integral part of the backroom staff for four seasons and reducing her status is sure to raise eyebrows. Given her impressive track record, Mourinho culling her from his inner circle so swiftly suggests there could be another underlying issue which has contributed to his decision.
What happens now to Carneiro and what does her future hold?
For the moment at least, Carneiro retains her title as the club’s first-team doctor but there seems no question her future with the Premier League champions is in doubt. Her relationship with Mourinho could well be beyond repair and, while her profile has soared, she is unlikely to settle for a career in the background at Chelsea’s Cobham training base.
Carneiro made a rare Facebook post on Sunday afternoon to express her gratitude for the support she has received, saying: "I would like to thank the general public for their overwhelming support. Really very much appreciated."
That may only have irked Mourinho further.
Would Carneiro be such a big loss anyway if she were to leave?
Still only 41, Carneiro has a wealth of experience behind her already. Her first foray into football was with West Ham after she studied at Nottingham University and Queen Mary University of London. Carneiro was later appointed to the UK Sports and Medicine Specialist training programme with the Olympic Medical Institute ahead of the 2008 Games in Beijing.
From there, she went on to spend time with England’s women’s football team and worked with Chelsea’s reserves for two years from 2009 before being promoted to her present position. Finding someone who slots into the backroom staff as seamlessly as she has since she was moved up by Andre Villas-Boas in 2011 wouldn’t be easy.
While there will be plenty of other doctors capable of doing the same job, she has built a rapport with Chelsea’s senior players. The value of having someone in which the squad seemingly trusts should not be underestimated, particularly when Chelsea need to be as well-oiled as possible as they bid to retain their title.
Who will take Carneiro’s place on the bench at Manchester City on Sunday?
That remains to be seen. Fearn may well stay involved but he is thought to have been rebuked privately by Mourinho, although Chelsea have not yet confirmed if his responsibilities are also to be adjusted. The club’s Spanish medical director Paco Biosca is an obvious candidate having worked in football for 35 years with Catalan side Lleida, Shakhtar Donetsk and at Stamford Bridge since 2011.
One of three academy doctors – Chris Hughes, David Porter and Julian Redhead – could step up but it is believed not all senior figures at Chelsea agree with Mourinho’s hard-line stance. That raises the question of whether Carneiro could yet be reinstated by the time the Chelsea team bus pulls up outside the Etihad Stadium.
Is this the first time Mourinho has had a run-in with medics?
No. In fact, he has a bit of previous in that department dating back almost a decade. In 2006, after Petr Cech was knocked out during a game at Reading, Mourinho claimed the goalkeeper was left waiting for half an hour in the dressing room before an ambulance crew attended. Emergency services disputed his account of what happened, saying it contained "serious factual inaccuracies".
Less than four months ago, he also defied the Premier League’s six-day return-to-play protocol by listing Oscar on the bench against Leicester just three days after he had suffered a head knock against Arsenal. The decision was branded as ‘completely unacceptable’ by an FA concussion panel after the Brazilian had shown what they believed to be clear signs of concussion.
He doesn’t seem to be very happy in general at the moment, does he?
Not particularly. Newspaper reports have claimed Mourinho hasn’t been his usual upbeat self lately and some fans have displayed weariness about his animated touchline antics.
The latest instalment of his bitter feud with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – the Frenchman’s refusal to shake hands following the Community Shield at Wembley on August 2 – overshadowed the match and that came after Mourinho ridiculed Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini for commenting on him while on holiday.
The former Porto boss also hit back at Rafa Benitez’s wife Montse last month after she claimed her husband was ‘tidying up’ the ‘mess’ Mourinho made at Real Madrid, saying: "The lady is a bit confused, with all respect. I’m not laughing. She is confused because her husband went to Chelsea to replace Roberto Di Matteo and he went to Real Madrid and replaced Carlo Ancelotti.
"The only club where her husband replaced me was at Inter Milan, where in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time. And for her also to think about me and to speak about me, I think the lady needs to occupy her time. If she takes care of her husband’s diet she will have less time to speak about me."
So is this all one big deflection tactic from Mourinho after a poor start to the season?
Sceptics may well say that’s the case. Pre-season results mean relatively little but they can have a bearing on a team’s confidence going into a new campaign and Chelsea failed to win any of the four warm-up games they played in normal time, drawing with PSG and Barcelona in between defeats to New York Red Bulls and Fiorentina.
They lost the Community Shield to Arsenal through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal and were pegged back twice as Swansea held them to a draw at the weekend. For all that, there hasn’t been as much focus on Chelsea’s poor form as you might expect in the circumstances. Four days on from the Carneiro incident, it still dominates news agendas and appeared on several back pages on Wednesday morning.
Courtois’ failed appeal against his weekend red card, on the other hand, was a mere footnote amid little discussion about Chelsea's failings on the park. Drawing attention to others might buy him a little more time to get his defending champion firing.
