Thibaut Courtois reacts to Chelsea’s sacking of Jose Mourinho

FC’s Steve Nicol believes that Chelsea are still vulnerable in the post-Mourinho era despite their win over Sunderland.

“The manager is not on the pitch, it is the players, so we lose the games and the thing we can change in the future is ourselves”.

However, Terry says all players are in a position to be criticised having used his programme notes to dismiss suggestions player power had a role to play in the manager’s exit. He was very demanding, his training sessions were intense, he’ll demand from everyone, and he’s a great man-manager as well.

“They’ll support us through this hard period and we will come out on top sooner or later”.

And after Hiddink was installed as interim boss and Sunderland were put to the sword, Terry said: “From that first half performance, who knows?”

Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola, who is set to reveal on Saturday if he will stay at the German club beyond the end of the season, is among the possible permanent replacements.

The situation is far more toxic than when Hiddink last walked into Cobham in 2009, and the 69-year-old will find he no longer has the pedigree of leaders within the squad that he guided to the FA Cup during his first stint with the club.

The discord on Saturday, though, was clearly between the team and its fans – even as the goals flowed from Branislav Ivanovic, Pedro Rodriguez, and Oscar against a Sunderland side marooned in the relegation zone.

The injured Belgian playmaker was the main target of criticism, along with Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. Fans also chanted Mourinho’s name and waved banners supporting the Portuguese.

Mourinho was sacked earlier this week after guiding the Pensioners to only four wins in their first 16 league matches, suffering nine defeats and picking up only 15 points.

“Where were you when you were (expletive)?”

Drogba scored 12 goals in 14 matches for Montreal after signing with the MLS club in July following the end of his second spell at Chelsea.

“There will be clubs and big clubs who will want him”.

“The main problem [with Netherlands] was the quality in the group, that is something he will not have at Chelsea because it’s mainly the same players as a year ago [when] Chelsea won the league”.

Former Chelsea defender Jason Cundy thinks Guus Hiddink is an extremely lucky man to be walking into the job at Stamford Bridge, taking over the Premier League champions.

More recently, he has been out of work since being fired by the Netherlands in June – during the latter stages of his country’s unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2016 European Championship.