Jose Mourinho: Public attack on Chelsea players shows a fractured relationship close to breaking point

There was a time when Jose Mourinho would only criticise opponents for parking the bus, but his final act as Chelsea manager may turn out to be the moment he threw his players under one.

One by one, Mourinho went through the card of those “superstars” he deemed to have let him down, not only in Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Leicester but since the Premier League trophy was hoisted aloft at the end of last season.

Some were singled out by name – such as Diego Costa, for “leaving his areas” – while others were damned by their achievements, in a manner that was dripping with Mourinho’s contempt.

“They have to look to Sunderland and Watford and say, ‘hey, we are at the same level’,” Mourinho said. “‘I am not the superstar, I am not the player of the season, I am not the world champion, I am not the Premier League champion. At this moment, I am at your level.’”

Eden Hazard, already shifting uncomfortably with the hip injury that forced him out of the game after half an hour at the King Power Stadium, would have known precisely who Mourinho was referring to when he spoke of the “player of the season”, while Cesc Fabregas would only have been fooling himself if he believed that the “world champion” in his manager’s sights was August arrival Pedro rather than himself.

Fabregas at least showed some urgency at Leicester, darting from the changing room to the team bus a little over five minutes after the end of the game, but it was perhaps not the “all for one, one for all” display of commitment that Mourinho would have wanted from his midfielder.

Still, with the Chelsea squad undoubtedly aware that their manager had just told Sky Sports in his post-match interview that his players had “betrayed” him by failing to follow the game-plan against Claudio Ranieri’s team, it is perhaps surprising that many of them did not choose to hail taxis back to London without having to go through the ordeal of sharing the ride home with their coach.

This is the situation Mourinho now finds himself in – a manager sitting in the front seat, knowing that conversations are taking place behind him which will be anything but complimentary.

There will be whispers, shakes of heads, rolls of eyes, but the 52-year-old Portuguese has brought it all on himself, and his brutal assessment of Chelsea’s failing players will be regarded as the beginning of the end.

Modern-day footballers are a thin-skinned bunch, save for the rare exception, and nothing corrodes more than a public dressing-down from the manager.

Roberto Mancini lost a dressing room and then his job at Manchester City following one public outburst too many, even though the Italian guided the club to runners-up spot in both the Premier League and FA Cup after winning the league title 12 months earlier.

Mourinho would give anything to be able to offer Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich such a return on this season, but with his team sitting one point above the bottom three ahead of Saturday’s relegation six-pointer – this is what it has come to – against Sunderland, there is no light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.

Hanging the players out to dry only works for those managers who have so much power that dissent in the dressing room is not an option.

Sir Alex Ferguson castigated his Manchester United squad after a derby defeat against Manchester City at Maine Road in November 2002, claiming, “I should open the dressing-room door and let the fans come in to tell you what they think of that performance”, but those players knew best to swallow the medicine and say nothing.

Tim Sherwood was less fortunate after he accused his Tottenham players of “lacking guts and character” during a 4-0 defeat at Chelsea in March 2014. That televised rant only accelerated the pursuit of Mauricio Pochettino as Sherwood’s replacement.

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Mourinho’s demeanour at Leicester resembled Sherwood’s more than Ferguson’s, with his words betraying his desperation rather than asserting authority.

The smiling touchline Mourinho is no more, and has been rarely seen since his sour exchange with former club doctor Eva Carneiro back in August, when the first tremors of this tumultuous campaign were beginning to be felt.

But despite the flames burning beneath his feet, Mourinho is seemingly prepared only to blame everybody but himself. Referees have borne the brunt of his frustrations, as have players, doctors, the media and, at Leicester, the King Power Stadium ball-boys who were, in Mourinho’s words, “a disgrace for the Premier League”.

Chelsea’s players, according to Mourinho, only won the title last season because “I did phenomenal work and brought them to a level that is not their level”. And so Mourinho, the Special One, is now steering a ship on to the rocks because he is failing to repeat that trick this season.

He can blame the players all he likes, but a manager cannot only take the credit for when his team is doing well. If the players are no longer listening or doing as the manager asks, they are hardly going to keep him in a job if he turns on them in public.

Which is why Mourinho’s remarks at Leicester felt like those of a man desperate to hurl a final insult at his detractors before he is turfed out of the door.