The Juan deal has benefited three M's - Mata, Moyes and Mourinho

Juan Mata

After the Rooney saga, the tussle for keeping and buying a player continued, with Juan Mata the latest to be involved. Who wouldn’t want a player of his quality in their team. I know one man who doesn’t. Jose Mourinho.

At Real, he was criticized for dropping club and Spain captain Iker Casillas on the bench. The stand in goalkeeper did not do a bad job. But his decision to drop him down the pecking order had more of a negative effect in the dressing room. There were reports about the senior players filing a complaint against the manager. And to quote the posts on social networking sites, Jose was “destroying a world class player”.

When he arrived at Stamford Bridge, a place he calls his home, there were rumors about him not being completely happy with the squad. Reports were that David Luiz and Juan Mata were the players who probably, were not a part of his long term project at Chelsea. Even though he was asked repeatedly about those rumors, he always responded by saying he was satisfied with the squad and that no player was going to leave.

With the squad he had in the first leg of the pre-season friendlies, Jose tried every combination of the attacking midfielders available to him, in the 4-2-3-1. Oscar, Mata and Luiz were among those who were given an extended break because of their involvement in the Confederations cup. In the second leg of the friendlies, Mata played 90 minutes over two matches. And Luiz played a half an hour cameo against Inter.

Then came competitive football. The first Premier League match at Stamford Bridge of Jose’s comeback at Chelsea. In the pre -match interview he was asked what role does he prefer to play Oscar in. He answered “the no. 10 role”. He had made it clear that Oscar was going to be his man behind the striker for the big games. That, sadly for Mata, meant that he would probably have to spend more time on the bench than he would have expected.

As if things were not bad enough, Chelsea hijacked Spurs’ Willian bid. Another attacking midfielder was added to the already richly talented squad. It resulted in even more competition for that “No. 10 role” .

As games went by, everyone realized Mata was not a Jose favorite. And it didn’t matter to the manager that he was a fan favorite. He wanted performances on the field. Mata couldn’t become a first choice CAM in Mourinho’s eyes. He did not respond to Jose’s methods.

He wants his attacking midfielders to track back, something which has never been an aspect of Mata’s game and something he failed to include in his game. Hazard and Oscar on the other hand worked their socks off defensively, whilst scoring and creating goals at the other end. Newcomer Willian scored on his debut. And what a goal it was. And of course, what a substitution it was. He took Mata off and put Willian on.

Until the recent run of good form, Chelsea’s results were kind of a mixed bag. With an unexpected draw against West Brom and a defeats at Stoke, Newcastle and Everton. During this period Mourinho was still trying to find his best combination behind the striker.

Hazard was a constant in the side. Oscar was injured for few weeks. But recent selections suggest that Hazard-Oscar-Willian is the way forward for Jose. He recorded wins against two of the big six and drew against the rest of the three.

In all these matches, the fixture at White Hart Lane was the only time when he called upon Juan Mata to make an impact, which he did. To sum it up, the manager got the right results without picking fan favorite and two time Chelsea Player of the Year, Juan Mata.

As January came closer, the rumors re-emerged. It was said that several big clubs were coming in for the “out of favor playmaker”. Both Mourinho and Mata were asked about a possible move in January. Both denied the possibility of any such activity.

In January Mourinho was quoted saying “If an offer comes I will tell the board to not let him go.” But Manchester United, made, arguably, one of the best moves in the transfer market. A 37 million pound bid was reportedly made on Thursday, 23rd January. Everything moved swiftly and by the weekend, the deal came close to getting finalized. Mourinho was happy with the amount of money coming in.

Moyes, after suffering an array of bad results, finally got something to give the club and the fans, to cheer about. Mata, according to Mourinho, was happy to leave Chelsea for United.

Having played them twice, Chelsea were happy to sell their playmaker to their rivals. With United yet to play rest of the title challengers, Chelsea only benefited from the move. So this turned out to be an all-win situation. The three major parties involved – Mata, Moyes and Mourinho – were all happy at the end of it.