Further fallout from Mourinho's criticism of the medical staff

I heard the other day that AS Roma could be looking to buy out Ashley Cole's contract, which would make our legendary left back a free agent.  Maybe we can get him back, solely so he can pop an intern with a BB gun at practice.  I'd rather talk about that than all this doctor nonsense.

Here's the latest in the escalating row between the Chelsea manager, some of the Chelsea staff, and outside forces.

Contrary to yesterday's reports, it now sounds like Jon Fearn, head physio (you know, the other guy in this story that nobody seems to care about one bit) will also not be on the bench come Sunday.  Premier League rules specify that a doctor and a physio need to be present; it is entirely unclear who will fulfill those roles against Manchester City and who will fulfill those roles going forward after that.  Some (opportunists?), such as our former doctor Ralph Rogers have taken this chance to have a go at Dr. Carneiro, perhaps as some bizarre audition or application for the potential vacancy.  Rogers was Carneiro's predecessor before resigning over Paco Biosca's appointment as medical director.

Rogers does make a good point that Carneiro's Facebook post, while not obviously inflammatory, was ill-advised.  It most likely goes against company policy to comment publicly or on social media about or relating to internal matters.  Her short little thank you note -- seemingly her first post ever on her official page -- could easily be seen as a breach of trust, if nothing else.  Criticizing your employer or your boss on social media, directly or indirectly, hardly ever goes over well in the real world and we should not expect that to be much different in the football world.

While the media have done their utmost to make this a Mourinho vs. Carneiro issue, with plenty of thinly veiled sexist accusations to go around, some have maintained that the situation didn't just develop overnight.

The timing of the changes to Eva Carneiro's role is terrible but this is not a decision re her or Jon Fearn made solely on the back of Sat

— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) August 12, 2015

In almost every interview during the summer, Mourinho made reference to the fact the Chelsea medical dept needed to improve

— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) August 12, 2015

Sat was the straw that broke the camel's back and Mourinho could have dealt with it much better, but it's been coming for a while

— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) August 12, 2015

While I don't recall Mourinho talking too much about a need for improvement from the medical department -- instead, I mostly remember praise -- if there was tension already between the two sides, and the magnitude of the touchline outburst on Saturday could certainly indicate that these weren't brand new, spur-of-the-moment emotions, then it's not hard to imagine all this public attention being the last straw.

Mourinho's "actions" have drawn the attentions and the ire of not only the media and fans, but professional medical organizations as well, who have accused the Chelsea manager of putting the team's results ahead of player welfare.  Shocking, I know, that a manager would care about his team's results above all else, especially when, in his own mind, he was convinced that in that particular instance, Eden Hazard was not seriously hurt and could recover his knock without medical attention.  It should be noted that this is the same Mourinho who's asked referees for more protection for Hazard and was one of the major motivating forces behind improvements in touchline care following Petr Cech's head injury.  So to accuse him of not caring about player welfare is a bit rich, but whatever.  He probably administers all the painkillers and the peds, too, rather than leaving that to the medical professionals, right?