My View on the Adrian Mutu Situation

The big topic of the day is Adrian Mutu. There have been so many reactions to the court ruling that says that the has to pay about £15m to Chelsea as damages.

I did look at some of the reactions from Goal.com editors. They were not worthy of editorial columns. They were biased, knee-jerked and cheap. It is sad that Goal.com editors talk like the blokes that you pick up on a pub and realise that they are on their 10th beer.

My view is this: Yes, it is unfortunate (not unjustified) that Adrian Mutu is expected to pay the damages of £15m to Chelsea. For a 30-year old player of Mutu’s market value, it is a huge ask. I’m sorry for him. It was Adrian Mutu who was responsible for this situation.

When he took cocaine and failed the drug test, he must have surely violated some of the contract clauses. Chelsea did have their choices of keeping him or sacking him and they did the latter. Most of the discussions around this issue seems to be around the money involved or the cost of the damage.

Therefore, we have kind of established the fact that Mutu does have to pay some money to Chelsea as damages and we are haggling only over the price. Right? Now the question is on how much should be paying Chelsea? Chelsea paid a huge sum to bring in Mutu.

There are arguments that Mutu had no control over what price Chelsea were paying Parma. My point is, having known the price, Mutu must have felt the responsibility and that is enough reason to keep him away from such silly youthful mistakes.

See, Real Madrid have paid £85m for Ronaldo. If Ronaldo says that he wants to go for a friendly bike race with this friends on 1000cc bikes, what would Real Madrid say? If he goes on and breaks his legs, who’s going to bear that loss for Real Madrid?

If the same accident had happened in the normal course I can understand. But the accident should not happen because of the irresponsible acts of the players not knowing their own value. There were even arguments that said if Chelsea had paid only £3m to Parma that’s what now Mutu would have had to pay Chelsea. Some even put the blame on Chelsea for paying so much for Mutu which has had a direct impact on the extent of damages.

See if you’re driving a million-pound Ferrari and I’m smashing your car with a construction vehicle, you’d sue me for the cost of your expensive Ferrari car. Can I then tell you that you should have been driving a pick-up truck instead of a Ferrari? That’s a stupid argument.

Throwing a live cigarette on the road and in a nuclear plant may not be the same offence. You can’t be stupid to throw it in a nuclear plant and innocently say “I only threw a cigarette”.

Don’t look at this isolation. When the clubs invest millions of pounds in players, there is so much hope, trust and money in them. The players have to be more responsible knowing what kind of business they are raking and how their actions would impact the business.

Again, I’m sorry for Mutu. It is very unfortunate for him. Only he could have avoided this situation. I still feel that Chelsea and Abramovich would settle for a smaller amount outside of the court. But I don’t know what kind of discussions, arguments and relationship-breaking moments Mutu’s camp and Roman’s camp have had.

The other popular question is how Chelsea would react if say, Frank Lampard was involved in such a thing. First up, there’s no way Lampard is going to do such a stupid thing. Suppose he does, Chelsea would have kept him. Because for the simple reason Lampard is not Mutu. It’s so simple and easy to understand. Why would I equate a club legend with someone who didn’t even play a couple of seasons and during that period did not light up the league? It is a matter of finance rather than justice.

If Chelsea thinks that it can forgo the £15m for a club legend like Lampard, they would not sue him. In Mutu’s case, there is no such consideration. Simple as that.

The below is what Jose Mourinho said during the Mutu incident in 2004:

"

When I met Adrian Mutu on his first day in the pre-season, it was with his two agents, Mr. Becali and Gica Popescu. I told all three I have information that the player is on cocaine. We are speaking about the beginning of July. All three were laughing, denying and saying this a big lie. They said there are a lot of lies about Adrian and maybe some because last season he had some strange behaviour in the club and in his social life. They said it is completely untrue. After that I didn’t speak with him again about it because they denied the situation. Then at the club, during a long period, we felt just now again there was a strange behaviour. Sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy. Sometimes involved in the group, sometimes isolated. Arriving late a few times, not coming in to train other times. The doctor visiting his house and the reason was apparently headaches, not a big reason for that. Injuries when nobody knows when and how. For instance he didn’t play in Paris and the next day he was injured. So strange things.

We spoke about it. We asked is he pushing us to let him go in December and he is trying to get into a conflict with the manager so the manager says we have to let him go to another place? Or is he involved in other things? So begins to start a question mark. Our doctor, because he is analysing with different eyes, thought maybe yes and we cannot live in a football club with question marks. Mutu is valuable. Chelsea paid a big amount of money, he is still young and has years in front of him after his punishment and I don’t think we can say this is pragmatic.

The club bought him to be ready to play football and now he will be out of competition for a long period. The first one to break the relationship was the player so he cannot complain and the club cannot be called guilty in this situation. The club gave him everything he needs to have a good professional life. As he has said in a few interviews, this is a personal problem for a long period and I think the club cannot be called guilty. It is his fault. He is a human being, he is young man and his life must go in the right direction and for sure he will have around him people who love him and people who have a good relationship with him, his family, his agent, his advisers – and plenty of time to go into a good direction. This is a decision by Chelsea Football Club. We cannot interfere or push other clubs to go the same way. When our academy director works every week with every kid on a very important job in this area, the club felt this is the perfect example to show the way the club wants to go. It is not a crusade, other clubs can decide differently. The club felt this way, everybody was part of the decision and of course I agree.

"

I like Adrian Mutu as a player. The only reason why I cheered Romania in the Euro is because of Mutu. The only reason why I show some interest in the Fiorentina games is Mutu. Once again, I’m very sorry for Mutu.

Unfortunately, he is not Steven Gerrard and it was not a Liverpool court.