Will Michael Emenalo or Jose Mourinho Pay the Price for Chelsea Transfer Flops?

It’s got to the point where you feel as though something, anything, has to change at Chelsea for the Premier League champions to start looking like their former selves again.

Too much has gone on, and failed, for that not to be the case, but with Jose Mourinho still steadfastly—and admirably—refusing to call it quits, just what can be altered for the club to be seen to be proactively trying to make a difference? Or rather, who can be altered?

Enter Michael Emenalo.

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The 50-year-old Nigerian, who played at the 1994 World Cup and then at Notts County the following season, has always been something of a mysterious figure to the club’s supporters—his fairly mediocre playing career at clubs as diverse as Belgium’s Molenbeek, MLS side the San Jose Clash (now San Jose Earthquakes) and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv only adding to the sense of intrigue.

Emenalo is clearly highly regarded in corridors of power at Chelsea, but those corridors are currently being stomped through by Mourinho as the Portuguese wags his finger of blame at anyone or anything he sees.

Referees, opposition managers, underperforming players and his own medical staff have all been on the receiving end, and as Jack de Menezes reported in the Independent, Emenalo could just be the next cab off the rank.

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Formerly the assistant coach to Carlo Ancelotti, the Nigerian moved into a role as the club’s technical and sporting director in 2011, but it is perhaps telling he offered to resign from his role when Roman Abramovich reappointed Mourinho as manager in 2013, according to Matt Hughes and Rory Smith in the Times.

Emenalo’s role at Chelsea is one of those modern football positions in which it is easy to become the scapegoat when things go wrong, but if Mourinho really is starting to believe it is he who is responsible for some of the club’s recent transfer dealings—and let’s face it, he believes the world is against him at the moment—then his position at the club will be under threat.

Mourinho might be one step away from copying Bart Simpson, wrapping himself in tin foil and declaring that people are stealing his thoughts, but if it was Emenalo who was the driving force behind some of the club’s recent recruits, then he’d certainly have a point.

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Some of them—Juan Cuadrado, Mohamed Salah and Filipe Luis—simply came and went without ever learning the names of all of their team-mates, while others such as Radamel Falcao, Baba Rahman and Pedro Rodriguez aren’t exactly setting the world alight, and that world is still trying to work out why the Blues signed 26-year-old Senegalese defender Papy Djilobodji from Nantes on transfer deadline day in the summer.

Of course, all of these are or have been good players, and none of them would have come to the club behind Mourinho’s back. But in times of crisis, the general wants to look around his army and see people he trusts, and you get the sense Mourinho can’t do that at the moment.

It might be that the future of Emenalo tells us all we need to know about the relationship between the Chelsea manager and his paymaster, Abramovich.

The Portuguese—who idolises Sir Alex Ferguson—seems to crave the creation of complete control at Chelsea, the place where he wants to build his legacy and remain as manager for a decade and beyond.

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Most Chelsea fans probably want that too, but it is Abramovich who is really in charge at Stamford Bridge, and if he wants Emenalo at the club—as he did when he rejected that request to resign back in 2013—then he will doubtless remain.

Financially, the cost of removing Emenalo would of course be far less than the cost of getting rid of Mourinho and his numerous assistants, but failing to qualify for next season's Champions League or to create any form of good news story in the Premier League in this campaign could force Abramovich’s hand.

So, Emenalo or Mourinho?

It is clear from the backing Blues fans gave their manager at the recent Dynamo Kiev game they’d prefer the Portuguese to stay, but there is only one undisputed No. 1 on the King’s Road, and he might end up thinking differently.