Chelsea's problems are all your fault, Jose! Mourinho slammed by Capello and Cruyff

JOSE MOURINHO has been criticised for "exhausting his players mentally" and been told: Chelsea's mess is all your fault.

Both former England manager Fabio Capello and Dutch legend Johan Cruyff have launched a scathing attack on the Chelsea boss, saying he is solely to blame for the defending champions' abysmal season.

"Mourinho is a great coach but after a year and a half he burns out his players - his men are mentally unable to give him what he wants," said Capello.

"The cycles of the current Chelsea manager all tend to last more or less this time. After that his teams have no rhythm, they are missing the malice and there is no aggression."

Chelsea are 16th in the Premier League after losing four of their opening eight matches and Cruyff believes Mourinho's bad behaviour is part of the cause.

 

Mourinho was criticised for his treatment of Dr Eva Carneiro, who left the club after rowing with the Chelsea manager over an injury to Eden Hazard.

And the Portuguese was also charged with misconduct for his comments about referees following the 3-1 defeat by Southampton on Saturday.

"I don't think he is educating children to play football or educating for life," said former Ajax and Barcelona manager Cruyff. "He should behave better because he will be in the Press all over the world.

"What I like about him is that he's always capable of creating good ambience within the players - but what I don't like is that he always puts himself on the first row. He should be on the second row.

 

Jose Mourinho is under more pressure than he ever has been as Chelsea manager

 

Dutch legend Johan Cruyff is one of those to criticise Mourinho's treatment of his Chelsea players

"It's probably because of his background, where he has never been cheered by 100,000 people, or whistled at by 100,000 people."

The knives are most certainly out for Mourinho, with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich issuing the dreaded vote of confidence in his manager on Monday.

And it transpires that the Russian faces a bill of about £37million in compensation payments if he sacks Mourinho before Christmas.

Mourinho earns about £8.5m a year under the terms of his new four-year deal, signed just before the start of the season, but bonuses and other clauses take his earnings to just under £10m.

 

It is understood, however, that Abramovich is reluctant to sack a man he appointed in 2013 with the idea of building a dynasty at the club, because there is no realistic alternative in the market to replace him.

But even his own players have started to ask questions. "It [Chelsea's current form] is not the standard this club and team has set, so for us at the moment it is a very difficult time,' said goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. "Hopefully this [international] break comes at a good time and we can regroup, get a good result in the next game and drive on from there.

"When things are not going your way it's tough; we're playing against a lot of things at the moment - it's a mental thing as well - but it's just something we've got to keep fighting through.

"We have to show character and we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We need to get back to basics."