For Mike Ford, the parallels are too close for comfort. Like Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, Bath started this season with a squad full of internationals, sky-high expectations among the fanbase and an owner who demands success only to find themselves marooned at the wrong end of the table. Chelsea’s slump would ultimately cost Mourinho his job.
The difference, Ford maintains, is that he retains the support of both the dressing room and his owner, despite admitting that Bruce Craig is unhappy. Their weekly meal out together was cancelled after Bath lost against the bottom club Newcastle 19-14 at Kingston Park, a third defeat in four league games for the runners-up of last season.
Bath are a shadow of their former selves this season Photo: REUTERS
The writing was on the wall for Mourinho when he started publicly attacking his players without engendering any desired reaction. Although Ford has asked the squad for their own written individual feedback, Bath’s head coach has not hung any individuals out to dry.
“He [Mourinho] used the word 'betrayal’ didn’t he? I think you’re gone once you’ve done that,” Ford said. “I have a great relationship with the players, very close with the senior players in particular.
“They did their own written feedback. That was the first step of them being honest and brutal with themselves and putting their own hand up. That’s the reaction I wanted. That’s the reason I did it. I did it on purpose. In 2½ years as head coach I’ve never said anything in the press about players. And I didn’t mention any individuals.
Jose Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea towards the end of last year
“Bruce wants to win. I’ve known that since I came here 3½ years ago. He’s passionate. He’s not happy, he’s disappointed. But at the same time he wants to see how how he can help and support me and the staff and the players. But he’s made his feelings known. We’re all in the same boat. We’re all disappointed.
“That [Chelsea] is a classic example of a team losing momentum. From last year where they won the premiership to where they are at the moment. That’s sport. We’ve got to find a way to get momentum.”
That are few more foreboding places to regain lost momentum than the Stade Felix Mayol where Bath will play their rearranged Champions Cup fixture against Toulon, the triple European champions, on Sunday. As Ford says with no little understatement: “It is a tough task but it is a juicy one.”
There are myriad reasons why Bath seem a shadow of their former selves. Their attacking and shape and style that was so effective last season until Saracens brutally shut it down in the Premiership final now appears predetermined and pedestrian. England’s disastrous World Cup has clearly affected the confidence of George Ford, the fly‑half, and disrupted the team’s preparations.
Then there was the Sam Burgess saga. More costly than the distraction of the media hullabaloo was the decision to let Carl Fearns, a vastly underrated loose forward, depart to Lyon with the recruitment of Taulupe Faletau only secured for next season.
Yet the head coach said that the root of their problems was more basic than that. “We need to get back to our fundamentals,” Ford said.
“What we have identified over the last couple of days were the fundamentals of our scrum, our lineout both ways and our defence. You can have the best line-out in Europe, and I think we have the best lineout in Europe, but unless they get front‑foot ball... There are loads of other things I could mention but we have put that as No 1.
“We still believe heavily in what we are doing and the way we play the game. When you analyse games like we do there are always opportunities missed but the way we try to play is to creating those opportunities. We just need a bit more composure, better execution and all them things will turn in to better belief and momentum. Sport is about momentum and at the moment we haven’t got it.”
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