First Sign Of Unrest At Chelsea

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho has launched a stinging attack on boss Jose Mourinho for leaving him out of the starting line-up against Wigan.
Mourinho is credited with creating an unrivalled team spirit but now a current senior star has broken ranks.

Carvalho told the Evening Standard newspaper: "I don't understand why I've been told to wait for another chance to play this season.

"I don't believe I will be third choice. It's incomprehensible."

Carvalho was a key component of Chelsea's watertight defence last season, forging a successful partnership in central defence with John Terry.

But William Gallas replaced the Portugal international in the Blues' 1-0 win at the JJB Stadium on Sunday.

And the Portugal international added: "I want to know why I didn't play. How can I explain it when I don't understand it?

"Sincerely I gave a lot of thought and time to myself but cannot find a valid explanation.

"I don't understand the reason he put me in a group including Robert Huth, Joe Cole and Tiago."

This is not Carvalho's first run-in with Mourinho - the two did not always see eye-to-eye at Porto - and he is anxious that their relationship should not deterioate further.

"At FC Porto I didn't have an easy life with Mourinho, especially in the year he arrived," he said.

"But in time I recovered my confidence and finished in a big way. I don't want an identical situation at Chelsea."

Bit of arrogance creeping in there it seems. "i dont understand the reason he put me in a group including huth, cole and tiago".

Don't know who this guy thinks he is. Last season he didn't reach the levels i expected of him after a fantastic display for Porto and i thought they paid far too much for him.

Mourinho should teach him a lesson to speak out like he has and put him in the youths for a week.

[Oddsfellow]

I see Robben having a go in the paper today, so all is not well at Chelski.

[MickeyPaul]

Well, Terry is backing him:

Chelsea defender John Terry has backed boss Jose Mourinho's rotation policy after criticism from Arjen Robben.

The Dutch winger was quoted on Saturday as saying that rotation was "bad for a player's confidence" - days after a similar outburst from Ricardo Carvahlo.

"There's such great competition in training every day, it's fantastic," Terry told BBC Radio Five Live.

"You've got so many good players just behind you. If you're not playing well, somebody as good as you can come in."

Terry denied that players were constantly in fear of being dropped by Mourinho.

"I think it's great the opportunity we have got at the club. If you play one bad game, I know the manager, he is not going to just drop you like that," he said.

"He realises what you can do and you can't play well all the time, he realises that. Obviously if you're playing badly for two or three games, you're going to be out of the side.

"Then it's down to you to impress the manager and get back in the team."

Terry added that he felt the team was being targeted by the media because they were champions.

"It's just paper talk because we did so well last season we are the team to upset. Everyone wants to unsettle us a little bit," he said.

"Players sat down with the manager we talked it through, and this was at the beginning of the season.

"Everybody knows their situation at the club, and their role."

Robben was quoted in Saturday's newspapers as saying: "If you play two or three matches and one match is bad, you are immediately on the bench and that's not good.

"It's bad for a player's self-confidence because you can't get a rhythm.

"The problem now is that if you have a dip in form or play badly then you are immediately replaced."

Earlier in the week, Carvalho spoke out about being left on the bench for Chelsea's game at Wigan.

Mourinho responded to Carvalho's comments by claiming that the player needed to take an IQ test, and the defender later issued an apology to the manager.

Robben, whose position is under threat after Chelsea's summer purchase of Shaun Wright-Phillips, could now face a similar frosty response.