Jose Mourinho leaves Chelsea for 2nd time

Only seven months after winning the Premier League title, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is leaves the club, which is languishing only one point above the relegation zone.

Chelsea says “both Jose and the board agreed results have not been good enough this season and believe it is in the best interests of both parties to go our separate ways.”

Chelsea’s Portuguese head coach Jose Mourinho oversees a training session at the Sammy Ofer Stadium in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa on November 23, 2015, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League group G football match against Maccabi Tel Aviv. (AFP/ JACK GUEZ)

Chelsea has lost nine of its 16 league games, with Mourinho’s last match a 2-1 loss to Leicester on Monday. After easing to the league title in May, Mourinho was awarded a new four-year contract.

First hired by Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho won the league twice before a fallout led to his firing three years later. He was brought back in 2013 by owner Roman Abramovich.

Earlier this year, Mourinho said none of his players were concerned about coming to Israel for a European Champions League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, despite British Home Office warnings about a surge in Palestinian terror attacks. Everybody “just wanted to come” and nobody had any fears, Mourinho told a pre-match press conference at the time.

“I had even a player who maybe tomorrow or after tomorrow, his wife is having a baby. And he’s here to play, because he knows how important it is for us.”

— AP and Times of Israel staff