Friday 16 October 2015 12:43, UK
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."
