Coral’s Rumour Reel: Chelsea crisis dominates press
Published:
Jamie Clark, Sports Editor | December 16, 2015
How the mighty have fallen. Defending Premier League champions Chelsea – let’s face it, we can’t call them that for much longer – are a club in crisis, with the tabloids reporting the Stamford Bridge board will hold another emergency meeting about the future of manager Jose Mourinho.
‘The Special One’ is believed to have told the Blues players he should’ve sold some of them this past summer, and that may be a major contributory factor in why they are no longer performing.
Key players have the Blues
Cesc Fabregas’ rallying cry for Chelsea’s expensively assembled squad to justify their wages and put in displays worthy of champions for Mourinho may fall on deaf ears. One newspaper even goes so far as to say it is not a question of if but when the Portuguese coach is sacked.
Even if he hangs on to his job, Mourinho will not be able to spend his way out of trouble as Blues owner Roman Abramovich is refusing to give the green light for a winter window spending spree. It could cost as much as £10m in compensation to get rid of the manager.
One of Chelsea’s biggest flops this term is Eden Hazard, who is yet to score, but there will be no January exit for him as potential suitors simply don’t have the squad space to make it worth their while signing the Belgium international.
Saints to take Townsend from Tottenham?
In other gossip, Southampton are prepared to give Spurs outcast Andros Townsend a lifeline this winter after Mauricio Pochettino left the England winger out in the cold.
Townsend had a high-profile bust-up with a Tottenham fitness coach, and that unseemly incident appears to have proved terminal for his career prospects at White Hart Lane.
And finally, French forward Sebastien Haller is a January transfer window target for struggling Premier League pair Norwich City and Sunderland. He currently plays his football in the Dutch Eredivisie for Utrecht.
Related
Check out previous tasty transfer gossip in our Rumour Reel archives.
