Chelsea coach, Jose Mourinho, has hit out at club legend, Didier Drogba, after the striker recently claimed the Blues’ current squad lacks leadership.
Drogba told The Sun – earlier this week that the Blues previously possessed more leaders – such as himself, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech and Michael Ballack – compared to just John Terry on his own today.
The comment clearly agitated Mourinho, whose side sit 15th in the Premier League table following a disastrous start to the 2015/16 campaign, so much so that he felt the need to respond to the Blues’ hero.
“When you speak because you want to sell books, I don’t read. I don’t read,” Mourinho was quoted as saying by the Mirror. “I like good interviews. I like interviews from big guys like Didier with good journalists, newspapers or television.
“But this is not an interview. It was to sell books.
“It doesn’t disappoint me. It was just the reality. It was just to sell books. I can analyse Didier’s interview with pleasure, but not Didier selling books.”
Mourinho was clearly attempting to defend his current group of players, but the lack of leadership in the Chelsea squad this season has to be a real concern for the manager.
He needs more from the likes of Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas – players who all delivered last season, both in terms of leadership and performances, but have flattered to deceive so far this term.
While he believes Drogba is desperate to sell his book, Mourinho thinks hot-headed Costa is not reading the game enough.
The Blues boss conceded the striker did snap back at him when Mourinho shouted instructions from the touchline in the 4-0 Champions League win against Maccabi Tel Aviv in midweek.
Although Mourinho tried to play down the incident he admitted Costa, 27, swore.
He said: “Everything is OK. No problem. In the game I told him . . . from a distance, that I was not happy with the movement he did.
“He told me also a few nice words from where he was. And nothing happened. Nothing happened at half-time.”
But crucially Mourinho continued: “He’s not reading the game properly in these actions.
“That was my opinion. As a striker he must read. You have to anticipate things and read the game faster.”
Drogba, the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Cote d’Ivoire national team recently launched a book titled Commitment.
