Mourinho's second spell comes to an end under cloud of

Cesc Fabregas's spokesman has denied he is the Chelsea player who it was claimed would ‘rather lose than win’ for former manager Jose Mourinho.

Former Blues winger Pat Nevin - talking on the BBC’s Today programme with Garry Richardson, the radio host who reported ‘one first-team player would rather lose than win under Mourinho’ in November - claimed Fabregas was the star not pulling his weight.

Richardson said: ‘As I mentioned on BBC Radio six weeks ago, one player said, “I’d rather lose than win for Mourinho”. Said in the heat of the moment... but it summed up the atmosphere.’

Pat Nevin claimed Cesc Fabregas is the Chelsea player who would rather have lost than won for Mourinho

Mourinho oversees his final training session in charge of Chelsea before being sacked on Thursday

Fabregas was the first Chelsea player to publicly thank Mourinho, posting on his Facebook page

PAT NEVIN'S CHELSEA CAREER 1983–1988 Appearances: 193 Goals: 36 Advertisement

Nevin replied: ‘Yeah, that was Cesc Fabregas, wasn’t it?’

He added: ‘I thought it came out it was Cesc Fabregas. If it was, he’d been one of the strongest and it just shows in his game. I found this out myself in the last couple of days that you do sometimes take on face value what people tell you and it’s not always the truth.’

But when contacted by Sportsmail, a spokesman for Fabregas said Nevin’s allegation was ‘not true’.

The Spanish midfielder (right) arrives at Chelsea's Cobham training base on Friday morning

Chelsea legend Nevin was talking on the BBC Today programme with Garry Richardson

Fabregas thanked Mourinho on Thursday, but has previously had to deny reports he was unhappy at Chelsea

Fabregas in action at Chelsea's Cobham training base just hours before Mourinho is sacked

Fabregas’s form slumped this season and he was dropped for Mourinho’s final two games in charge — a win against Porto and defeat at Leicester.

Richardson was presenting on Sportsweek last month when he alleged a senior figure in the Chelsea dressing room simply did not care about results.

'The information was actually passed to me by a football contact. I was told that Jose Mourinho's relationship with many of his players is at rock bottom,’ he said.

'I was told they're fed up with the way he's been dealing with some of them. They're fed up with his outbursts. I was told that his relationship particularly with Eden Hazard was under immense strain.'

Nevin has branded Chelsea as short-termist and felt Mourinho should have been afforded more time, despite languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League and with almost no chance of reaching the top four.

‘They wanted to change the system they had of changing managers every years or two. They wanted to try and build a dynasty,’ he said.

‘If you’re into ‘short-termism’ then I think it’s the right decision. ‘Longer- termism’, I think the guy is a great manager - he will go somewhere else and become a great manager again.

‘You might find yourself somewhere longer down the line feeling you’ve made a mistake.’

Sporting director Michael Emenalo blamed ‘palpable discord’ between the players and management staff as reason to relieve Mourinho of his position.

Emenalo appeared on Chelsea’s in-house television channel to explain the reasoning for dispensing with Mourinho in the hours after the announcement was made.

Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo has spoken about the dismissal of Jose Mourinho

Emenalo spoke on Chelsea TV and did not hold back as he explained why Mourinho had to be sacked

Mourinho was dismissed with the Premier League club sitting 16th after nine defeats from 16 games

The former Nigeria international felt dressing-room harmony had dipped to such a low that the manager had to go.

‘While there is huge sentiment for the individual who has done so much for the club, the fact of the matter remains that Chelsea Football Club is in trouble,’ he said. ‘The results are not good. There obviously seemed to be a palpable discord between manager and players, and we felt it was the time to act.