Chelsea
manager Jose Mourinho has rejected newspaper reports that he is facing a
mutiny from his players.
The
London Evening Standard claimed on Thursday that the Portuguese
coach is struggling to retain control of the Chelsea dressing room following
their dismal start to the Premier League season.
Despite a string of Chelsea first-team players, including Gary Cahill and
Cesc Fabregas, publicly pledging their support for Mourinho, the Standard
said a senior player has given him a crude one-word nickname.
But speaking to
talkSPORT on Friday, Mourinho described the reports
as "sad".
"I don't care really. I spoke with the players about it and the players are
also sad about it, but there is no way to care. It's sad," Mourinho said.
"We know what we are, we know the relationships between ourselves. We know
that we are trying to go back to normality together, but it is quite sad
because people could analyse the situation in pure football terms.
"Let's try to find the reason why this team is playing badly and why it is
not winning matches, without agendas and without unfair comment, because
that's not nice."
Mourinho also lambasted a £50,000 fine from the FA for post-match comments
following defeat to Southampton, doing so at the launch of his new book
Mourinho in London on Thursday.
And he also took the time to list the players who have come out in support
of him despite the team being 16th in the Premier League with just two wins
and four defeats from their opening eight games.
Mourinho said: "In the last three or four days, Asmir Begovic said, 'We had
the best manager in the world'. Kurt Zouma the same.
"John Terry said, 'We have the manager we want; the one who can help us to
revive this situation'.
"Diego Costa said, 'If you ask every player in the world, they will all
answer the same, that they'd like to work with three managers, and one of
them is this one'.
"Who else? Cesc Fabregas, the same. Ramires, the same. Loftus-Cheek, the
same. Cahill, the same. Eden Hazard, very similar."
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