Mourinho pours cold water on Cole 'unrest' claim
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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has vehemently denied midfielder Joe Cole wants a move away from Stamford Bridge.
A HAPPY ship is a successful ship and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho moved swiftly yesterday to dismiss suggestions that there was dissent festering in the Stamford Bridge camp.
Mourinho could not have been more emphatic in ridiculing reports that England midfielder Joe Cole wanted to leave the club after failing to secure a regular starting place this season.
"For me, it is rubbish journalism," Mourinho said. "The story says it is from a source, a friend, maybe a friend of a friend. It is unbelievable, I don't understand it. What is the story? There is no story?
"Have I spoken to Joe? No. For what? Joe has always been very open and came to see me in my office maybe three or four times last season. I had things to change in his game and I told him that he had to improve on this and on that. It was about change.
"This season, he has not come to see me. If he does, I will say that he has played in six of our seven games. Anyway, if a player did want to leave, he should have spoken to me last month when the transfer window was open. Now it is closed."
Despite Mourinho's denial, it is believed that Cole, whose contract expires at the end of next season, is unsettled at Stamford Bridge. He feels that, after taking the advice of Mourinho, he progressed markedly towards the end of the last campaign. However, with the arrival of Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips during the summer, he now considers that he is back to square one. After one "amicable" meeting about a new contract, he is not due to resume discussions until next year.
If Cole is agitating behind the scenes, rather than knocking again on the door of Mourinho's office, he should perhaps consider the implications. He need look no farther than team-mate Ricardo Carvalho, who spoke of his frustration about not playing while on international duty with Portugal last month and received a fine of two weeks' wages, about £100,000, for his comments.
Carvalho finally returned to the starting line-up on Wednesday - his absence was because of a calf problem, the club said - but only because William Gallas had to switch from central defence to left back to cover for the injured Asier Del Horno. That Carvalho shares the same adviser, Jorge Mendes, as his manager did little to dilute Mourinho's displeasure.
Since Carvalho's outburst, Mourinho's players have been reminded of the club policy that, when they are away with their national teams, they should restrict their remarks to international rather than Chelsea matters. "Ricardo was with Portugal," Mourinho said. "He was in a different space. But the players have to forget Chelsea when they go with their national teams. They have to protect themselves.
"It is frustrating when players don't come directly to me with their problems.
"If they are not happy, if they have doubts, they know that I am always open to communication. Ricardo is now playing because we need him to play. I don't look back and say 'because of what you did, I won't use you'. It's over. What happened, happened. No problem."
Chelsea have come under a barrage of criticism for playing unexciting football this season, but Mourinho insisted that he is very happy with the way they are performing, adding he felt no obligation to tell them to entertain.
"Obligation is not a word in my footballing vocabulary," he said.
"In my vocabulary the words are: work, be professional, do your best, work with quality, commitment and enthusiasm and respect. That's what I promise.
"Our style is a winning style. Sometimes the winning style is to play very good quality attacking football, sometimes it is to control the opposition, but it is always to play on the weaknesses of the opponent and not to give them what they want." (© The Times, London)
Russell Kempson
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=13010
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