Mourinho fires warning to Essien and Chelsea team-mates over scandals

Published on: 16 June 2013
Mourinho fires warning to Essien and Chelsea team-mates over scandals
Essien and Mourinho

New Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has told Ghana star Micahel Essien and his Blues team-mates he will not tolerate the club's image being tarnished by race rows and off-field incidents like it was last term.

Last season when Mourinho was coaching Real Madrid, Chelsea’s image was battered senseless by one unsavoury ­incident after another.

If it has not been High Court ­racism cases involving skipper John Terry, it has been front page headlines surrounding his and other team-mates’ extra-marital affairs.

And if it has not been Terry being stripped of the England captaincy – TWICE – it has been fellow Three Lions ace Ashley Cole causing mayhem with an air rifle at the training ground or sending abusive tweets attacking the FA.

To the outsider it ­appears the team who cannot stop winning? silverware?every year are equally ­incapable of ­behaving in an ­acceptable manner.

Yet, listening to Mourinho, you sense that is set to change.

Whether or not you ­believe his pledge that he is a ­reformed character, his ­message on maintaining dressing room discipline is deadly serious.

And it is one he will deliver to his multi-millionaire stars that includes Essien on the first day of ­pre-season. Just as he has done wherever his talents have taken him.

Mourinho, 50, said: “I say the same thing with every club I go to and I will say the same when I meet the players here on July 8.

“Some of the boys have heard this before from me but there is a sentence I always say first.

“If you are a top professional, if you are not a selfish person, if you put the club in front of yourself and if you are here to work 100 per cent – for me, for your fellow ­players and for the club – we’ll have a wonderful relationship.

“But if you’re selfish, if you don’t care about the club, you don’t care about the fans and don’t care about image, then we are in big trouble.

“So it depends on them if the ­relationship is fantastic or not ­fantastic. It’s down to players and it’s all about respect.”

That might be easier said than done. When Mourinho first ­arrived, ­Terry and Co had not won ­anything. Now their ­power has grown with every trophy collected. No fewer than EIGHT coaches have been hired and fired in the meantime.

Mourinho’s great friend, Sir Alex Ferguson, reckons managerial ­instability at a club serves only to increase the ­influence of the ­modern-day, mega-rich footballer.

The Happy One, as he now likes to be called, does not disagree. But as long as he has the club’s ­backing he is ­confident of stamping out the rebels.

“What Sir Alex says in ­relation to English football is ­doctrine, it’s the Bible,” said the ex-Real Madrid, Inter and Porto boss.

“If he says that, with so many years’ experience, he’s ­correct. Does it ­relate to this club? I don’t know.

“Sometimes you have groups that adapt ­easily.?Sometimes there’s a couple of guys who are not so keen to accept these rules and this is where you have ­problematic ­relationships.

“If the club supports the ­manager, the little guys are…”

Mourinho did not need to finish the ­sentence – ‘goners’ was the missing word.

And those wondering if his ­relationship with ­owner Roman Abramovich will be as solid second time around need not bother.

Mourinho added: “Never in my time did Roman try to interfere in the basic things of the manager – training sessions, team selection or in the players that you want to bring in to the club. Never.”

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