Jose Mourinho, Chelsea squad had ‘palpable discord’ – Michael Emanelo

“And so the second post-Jose Mourinho era begins for Chelsea Football Club”, the club wrote Friday on its website.

In an extraordinarily frank interview, Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo pinned the blame firmly on Mourinho for the club’s dramatic collapse this season because of what he termed “palpable discord”.

The shackles are off Sunderland, they’ll stick 10 men behind the ball and frustrate Chelsea, but with Jose Mourinho gone, the shackles are also off Chelsea with the hope of a fresh start following the nightmare season so far.

In his first spell at Stamford Bridge, he guided Chelsea to their first league title in 50 years. It was a decision taken to protect the interests of the club.

Emenalo said Chelsea were “in trouble” but rejected suggestions that the players had let the club down.

“That shows you we’re all in the business of results and if you don’t get those results, it doesn’t matter how good or popular we are, if we don’t get it right we’ll lose our position”. “There obviously seems to be a palpable discord between manager and players”.

Guus Hiddink wants to take a good look at Chelsea and their current predicament before accepting the interim manager’s job for a second time. That’s not good enough.

“Anyone who loves the club, who has any kind of affiliation to the club, can understand that this club is in trouble, and something needed to be done”.

“Prior to the beginning of this season, Mourinho had lost 5 of his 249 league home matches”.

Chelsea insisted Mourinho’s departure was by “mutual consent” on Thursday afternoon, only for club board member Emenalo to later offer more forthright views.

The squad is virtually identical to the one that dominated last season’s Premier League and won the League Cup.

“Everyone in football knows if it’s between the players and the manager, they will fire the manager because it’s very hard to get rid of a whole group of players”, Carragher told Sky Sports News HQ. “But I do that with every club, so for me I did that with everyone but the only one where I wear the shirt twice was Chelsea because I was in the club where I was”.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for someone coming in because make no mistake whoever comes in, that club is going to fly now”.

“Some people are saying they weren’t shocked by this decision – I was”.

While thrashings by Manchester City and Liverpool were chastening, it was defeats by less glamorous clubs like Leicester, Southampton, West Ham United, Stoke City and modest Bournemouth that led to a sense of crisis.

Guus Hiddink is expected to be named as interim coach until the end of the season.