Mourinho savages Chelsea flops

LONDON, Dec 31, 2006 (AFP) - Seething Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho tore into his under-performing players in a blistering attack in which he blasted almost every member of his team and then turned the guns on himself.

The furious manager slammed his Blues for falling six points behind Manchester United in the title race going into the New Year and said only the return of talismanic club captain John Terry and goalkeeper Petr Cech could revive their hopes of retaining their English Premiership crown.

Mourinho now wants to spend some of tycoon Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's fortune in the January transfer window and even went so far as to admit he may not be as good a manager as he thinks he is.

The Blues, once rock-solid in defence, have conceded eight goals in their last four Premiership matches, salvaging two late 3-2 wins and slumping to a pair of 2-2 draws at their Stamford Bridge ground, including to west London neighbours Fulham on Saturday.
"Maybe we are not so good as we think. Maybe I'm not such a good manager and the players are not such good players," the Portuguese boss said.

"I'm worried with the moment we are living.

"In attack we have one player performing and scoring goals. Didier Drogba is the only one. All the other players, they are not performing good enough. That's obvious.

"We cannot defend, we concede incredible goals," he spat.

England centre-half Terry is expected to return to the side on January 10 after recovering from back surgery and the Blues have defended poorly without his leadership.

Mourinho said he wanted to buy in new players but added he should be able to cope without Abramovich's riches.

"If the club ask for my opinion (on buying new players) I would say yes but at the same time when I see the eyes of some clubs lighting up and they go for absolutely incredible money for very ordinary players, I would say no.

"For a normal player we cannot pay a fortune. So if it's like that we go with the players we have.
"I need to spend nothing. I need the best goalkeeper and the best central defender in the world back. I don't need millions," he insisted.

He said the Blues' defensive woes came as no surprise.

"If everybody knows Chelsea in this moment cannot defend then I'm first to know that," he said.
"When the opponent sees one mistake and another mistake they smell the chance. It's exactly the opposite of previous periods with us.

"Paulo Ferreira is not a central defender, Henrique Hilario is our third goalkeeper, so they do the best they can.

"You need to have very strong central defenders in the air. In this country everybody has tall and strong strikers.

"We don't dominate the game in the air, that's obvious. What can you do with Ferreira and Geremi? Nothing. The players, they have no qualities adapted to the game opponents are playing against us."

Mourinho offloaded centre-halves William Gallas and Robert Huth following last season's successful title defence but refused to say if he regretted letting them go.

"There is no answer. They are not here any more. And to be fair, they are both injured," he said.

"Arjen Robben is out. Andriy Shevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Solomon Kalou are not performing."

And he also blasted Joe Cole as an "injury forever" -- the England midfielder has barely featured this season through various injuries and must decide whether to have surgery on a fractured foot.

In the 2-2 draw with Fulham, Moritz Volz gave the visitors a shock lead with the 15,000th Premiership goal. Chelsea equalised when a wide Frank Lampard shot went in off Liam Rosenior. Drogba put the Blues ahead but Carlos Bocanegra hit a late equaliser to stun the hosts.
Chelsea travel to 12th-placed Aston Villa on Tuesday, while Fulham (11th) host rock-bottom Watford on Monday.

"They're just having one of those periods where they're a bit shaky because they are missing certain players," said Fulham boss Chris Coleman following the Chelsea draw.
"All clubs go through it and Chelsea are finding that now.

"It was a great point and it's a great platform for us now. It's not ideal that we're playing again on Monday. Our guys will be physically and mentally tired but this will give us loads of confidence going into the Watford game."