Terry claims players to blame for Chelsea’s unacceptable season

Branislav Ivanovic has hailed the appointment of Guus Hiddink as new Chelsea manager as the Dutch boss was the one who gave him his first “proper chance” to get established at Stamford Bridge during his first tenure at the club.

Following Jose Mourinho’s sacking as manager, the Blues backed a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Leicester with a much brighter performance against struggling Sunderland at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge in June 2013 and proceeded to win the Premier League and League Cup last season.

The 69-year-old Dutchman won the FA Cup when he previously filled the Chelsea managerial void in 2009 for around four months after the exit of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Guus Hiddink put the Chelsea squad through their paces as he took his first full training session on Tuesday.

“I am looking forward to working with the players and staff at this great club and especially renewing my wonderful relationship with the Chelsea fans”.

Chelsea showed Mourinho the door on Thursday following a poor run of results which left the Blues just a single point above the Premier League relegation zone.

The Frenchman said, “If Mourinho was still there, I still think we would have lost”.

Chelsea said Hiddink would attend their game against Sunderland on Saturday, but that first-team coach Steve Holland would take charge of the team.

The Chelsea supporters were unanimous in their support for the “Special One”, and vented their frustration by booing certain players before the match. “You can see the quality is there”.

The former England worldwide, thanked his former manager, both on behalf of the club and in a personal capacity, stressing that “together we won so many big trophies, ‘ He also played down rumous of players not giving their all for their former manager, insisting that ‘all of us go out to win every game”.

“Obviously we are gutted the manager has gone, we as players feel responsible for that”.