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Board mulls Mourinho future amid Chelsea woes

Shanghai Daily, December 17, 2015

• Jose Mourinho’s future as Chelsea manager is in suspense over his failure to lift the team out of its alarming slump, according to British press reports yesterday.

  The Daily Mail said that the Chelsea board was due to meet to discuss Mourinho’s position yesterday, while the Daily Telegraph claimed the club’s hierarchy was drawing up a list of potential replacements.

  Premier League champion last season, Chelsea is currently just a point above the relegation zone after losing nine of its 16 matches to date. It has, however, reached the UEFA Champions League last 16.

  Reports suggest it would cost Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich between 10 million pounds (US$15 million) and 40 million pounds to sack Mourinho for a second time, having previously dismissed the Portuguese in 2007.

  Mourinho signed a new four-year contract in August. Chelsea gave him a public vote of confidence in October, but there has been no official communication from the club on his position since then.

  Mourinho, whose side hosts Sunderland in the league on Saturday, was taking the team through the works as usual at the club’s training ground in Cobham, 27 kilometers southwest of London, yesterday.

  Several newspapers, including The Sun, reported that Chelsea’s players were angered by Mourinho’s claim that they had “betrayed” his work following Monday’s 1-2 defeat at league leader Leicester City.

  Meanwhile, Javier Hernandez left Manchester United because manager Louis van Gaal told him he had a “one percent chance” of playing as a striker if he stayed at the club, the Mexican has said.

  Hernandez joined United in 2010, and scored 37 Premier League goals in 49 starts for the club. He was loaned out by Dutchman Van Gaal to Real Madrid for the 2014-15 season.

  The Mexico international joined Bayer Leverkusen for a reported 7.3 million pounds in August and has scored 10 goals in 11 league starts for the Bundesliga side and 18 in all competitions for the club this season.

  “Van Gaal said that I only had a one per cent chance of playing in my position, so I headed to Bayer,” the striker told Spanish newspaper Marca.

   

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