Jose Mourinho: Teams may no longer fear Chelsea

Jose Mourinho has branded claims that he has lost the respect of the Chelsea dressing room as an “absolute disgrace”.

Mourinho was sanctioned for comments made following the October 3 loss to Southampton in which he said referee Robert Madeley was “afraid” to give Chelsea a penalty.

Mourinho contests the FA’s suggestion that under-fire manager’s comments “alleged and/or implied bias on the part of a match official or match officials and/or brought the game into disrepute”. “There is something that, now, we know”, he said.

“The word “afraid” is a punishment, and a hard punishment”. But to say the referee was “weak and naive”, referring to one of the top referees in this country and in Europe, we can do.

£50,000 in the world where we live today is an absolute disgrace.

“Weak and naive”, you can use.

Most people’s marque fantasy football pick has scored only one Premier League goal and in truth his contribution in the final third has been poor to say the least. No one at Chelsea is happy with our current position but I would prefer to be here now than at the end of the season.

Asked if he would still be in charge if Chelsea finish in mid-table, Mourinho said “Yes”, before adding: “No. I was not told that because we don’t expect to finish mid-table”.

Speaking at the launch of his new book MOURINHO at Waterstones Piccadilly in London, he expressed fury at his punishment and wondered when he would electronically tagged for his sins.

Mourinho will now literally pay the price for letting his frustration get the better of him and frankly there is nothing more fitting at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s bad, either, because to be in the national team is always an honour for a player and every player likes to go”.

Do you think it’s possible for Mourinho to retire at Chelsea one day?

“Every game is a must-win game for different reasons”. 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.

“No, I don’t think fear factor is the right words”, he said.

Cesc Fabregas has also been below his usual standards so far this season but the Spaniard may retain his place in the middle of the park. “Cahill, the same. Eden Hazard, very similar”.