Chelsea balls: Hazard mocks Mourinho and Cahill looks to the future
Chelsea players Eden Hazard and Gary Cahill have “stuck the knife into former manager Jose Mourinho”, says the Express. (It’s a mere flesh wound in the Sun – a “sly dig”). Jose is “UNDER FIRE” as Chelsea players “lash out” at their former coach, the Express continues.
The quotes come. Cahill says Chelsea “lost our way tactically” under Mourinho.
Hazard says: “[Antonio] Conte puts trust in his players. Now we are good after an ugly season last year. I’ve always been the same player. But Conte knows how to treat players having played at the highest level himself.”
Is that a dig at Mourinho’s lack of success as a player? If it is, it echoes Johan Cruyff, who opined, “What I don’t like is that he always puts himself on the first row. He should be on the second row. It’s probably because of his background, where he has never been cheered by 100,000 people, or whistled at by 100,000 people.”
Over in the Mail, Cahill’s quote is given more context. Was he really knifing Jose? No. What he said was:
“We needed organisation. Everyone saw what happened. We went from winning the league, having stayed at the top all year, to the disaster of last season. We lost our way tactically, everyone’s head was in different directions. When I say about pulling together as a team, I felt everyone had different situations going on individually – whether that be if you’re playing or not, the manager, or this or that. Different distractions are never healthy.”
Not all Mourinho’s fault, then. Cahill says everyone at Chelsea played a part in last season’s failures. Although it was Mourinho who got the sack.
Posted: 8th, September 2016 | In: Back pages, Chelsea, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
