Jose Mourinho is acting like he wants the sack

If you examine Jose Mourinho's behaviour recently it wouldn't be much of a stretch to conclude that this is a man who is seeking the sack. I think you can tell he is already looking to move on from Chelsea. He has lost a few games and I don’t think he fancies the battle at Stamford Bridge.

Things didn’t start well this season when he didn’t get the signings he wanted in the summer and with Mourinho now lashing out at his players and saying ‘back me or sack me’ to the board in a seven-minute rant on TV, you have to question whether he wants to be in the job any longer. It certainly doesn't seem like it.

At the same time as lambasting his players after losing to Southampton and declaring himself to be Chelsea’s best manager ever, he insisted he had no plans to step down. And I’m sure he doesn’t. Not when he will get a huge pay-off if he is shown the door.

There have been signs for a while now that not all is right with Mourinho, and that has never been more apparent when, completely out of the blue, he started talking about not being sacked by Chelsea in his now infamous post-match interview following the Southampton loss. Well, no one was seriously talking about him getting the sack, and by bringing it up he surely knew it would be all over the papers. He must have wanted the debate to take place.

A few weeks ago, when pressed about his inability to last much beyond three seasons at any club, Mourinho responded by discussing longevity and building a dynasty. Back in August he started saying how his relationship with Roman Abramovich was so great. I thought it was strange at the time – why he has brought all this up?

I think he was reinforcing his position with the fans in anticipation of any further trouble down the line, so people couldn’t question his commitment. But I don’t think he has loyalty to a club built within him. He gets that three-year itch. Mourinho can’t build dynasties.

Maybe he is looking for something else now - a new challenge. But if you are a club owner, why would you want someone who doesn’t leave a lasting legacy? He isn’t a great tactician and always plays the same way whichever club he is at. He wants clones and robots and breeds negativity. You want someone to make your club marketable and I don’t think Mourinho is that man.

Mourinho is a terrible front-man for a club. Chelsea are not going to be anyone’s second team – not to the degree that Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham or Liverpool are. In Asia there are two London teams anyone talks about: Arsenal and Spurs. No one in Asia supports Chelsea because they are very unpopular, and Mourinho is a big part of how they are perceived.

I think a good number of Chelsea fans will be embarrassed by what Mourinho said in his rant. Boldly claiming he was the club’s best ever manager was arrogant, brash and dismissive of the club’s history. Sir Alex Ferguson would never dream of saying that about Manchester United – even if it is true.

Someone like John Neal comes to mind. He had to keep Chelsea alive when they were almost going broke, keeping the institution afloat. People like him have been great managers too. They might not have won anything but they have been great managers who have worked just as hard without having the money Mourinho has had to spend. Lots of supporters will remember some of the tough times in the 80s and it will hurt to hear Mourinho proclaim himself the best ever in such a dismissive manner.

Trophies are not the only judge of greatness. And even if they were, Roberto Di Matteo has won the Champions League at Chelsea and Rafa Benitez has won the Europa League – neither of which Mourinho has been able to do.

It’s all getting very messy at Chelsea. There are World Cup winners and Champions League winners who are playing badly and losing form and that in my opinion that comes down to a lack of confidence in the manager.

Mourinho’s reasoning for bringing Nemanja Matic on as a substitute in the weekend’s defeat to Southampton and then substituting him off again just 28 minutes later made little sense at all. He said Cesc Fabregas “copes better with pressure” but Matic was Chelsea’s calmest player last season.

Fabregas didn’t track back for the first goal and he has been playing badly so you would take him off straightaway. But for Mourinho it is about who is showing him love. We know Fabregas shouldn’t be playing regularly. We know Branislav Ivanovic shouldn’t be playing regularly and certainly shouldn’t have that armband on his arm. His discipline is awful and he isn’t a leader of men.

But Mourinho has his favourites. Matic was one of those last season but he certainly isn’t now, and to substitute a substitute is an act of such flagrant disrespect. That will have finished his relationship with Mourinho. You can’t recover from something like that. It’s a horrible, embarrassing feeling.