Juande Ramos Emerges as Candidate to Replace Jose Mourinho as Chelsea Manager

Juande Ramos is being considered for the role of interim manager should Chelsea decide to show Jose Mourinho the Stamford Bridge exit following a disastrous start to the campaign.

The Blues sit a point above the Premier League relegation zone and have no hope of successfully defending their title. Matt Hughes of the Times revealed on Wednesday Ramos is being eyed for the caretaker position.

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The former Tottenham Hotspur boss has been without a club since leaving the helm of Ukrainian giants Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 2014.

Ramos led Spurs to their League Cup triumph in 2008 but was axed from his position at White Hart Lane the following season after the club's worst-ever start to a top-flight campaign. Jenny Brown of WhoScored.com questions his candidacy with a questionable record in England:

Ex-Real Madrid manager Ramos came upon his greatest career accolades in his native Spain and led Sevilla to back-to-back UEFA Cup wins in 2006 and 2007, clinching the Copa del Rey and Spanish Supercup in the latter.

Chelsea's most recent disappointment came in the form of a 2-1 defeat at Premier League leaders Leicester City on Monday, after which Mourinho suggested his players had "betrayed" him, per the Mirror's Adrian Kajumba:

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One of my best qualities is that I can read the game and identify the strengths of the opponent and tell my players what they are. So it it is a big frustration to accept the goals [Leicester scored] because my work was betrayed, if that is the right word.

In the situations I identify, we concede the first and second goal. The mistakes were there. One possibility is that I did an amazing job last season and brought the players to a level that is not their level and now they can’t maintain it.

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Hughes wrote that Chelsea's board is discussing "whether to dismiss the manager immediately" or to allow him to take charge of the team for Saturday's home fixture against Sunderland.

That claim is more severe than those of BBC Sport's Phil McNulty, who stated club owner Roman Abramovich led talks on how to turn the season around. In what might have been a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, Kieran Canning of Agence France-Presse said Chelsea would be better off holding out for under-fire Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez as a replacement:

Bleacher Report's Chelsea correspondent Garry Hayes, meanwhile, labelled the reported pursuit of Ramos "a farce":

Mourinho is in the third season of his second spell with the west London giants, and this season's plummet has seen his reputation fall in kind, but one has to question how any other manager would improve matters.

Chelsea are at a crossroads in their bid to steer the campaign back on track, and the availability of Ramos will reportedly tempt the Blues into making a switch rather than continue risking their future on Mourinho.