If last year's title was the exception, Mourinho is the genius, not the jinx

There is a cynical theory that some Chelsea players actually want Jose Mourinho sacked. That they are not putting it in for him. That he has become the hoary football cliche — a manager who has lost the dressing room.

He denies it, of course, but certainly on Saturday Chelsea appeared sluggish compared to Jurgen Klopp's revitalised Liverpool. On Sunday the BBC quoted an unnamed player saying he would rather lose than win for Mourinho.

So maybe there are voices agitating behind his back, players who do not like Mourinho or his style and believe that if this tailspin continues, Roman Abramovich will have no choice but to act, and jettison another manager. There have been tales of scurrilous nicknames for the boss and suggestions the team now tune out when he talks. And mutineers may think this run, against a background of dissent, reflects very badly on Mourinho — which only goes to show how daft some footballers are.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is reported to be having troubles in the Stamford Bridge dressing room

But it isn't Mourinho who is the most obvious underperformer at Chelsea, instead it is his team

For there is another way of looking at this debacle — although it won't have occurred to those secretly revelling in Mourinho's downfall. It's not him, it's them. It isn't Mourinho who is the obvious underperformer, but his team. Who has the true c.v. of substance here? Nemanja Matic, for instance, with his one fine season in English football, or Mourinho's eight national titles and three European trophies across four countries?

What if last year, not this, was the exception? What if Chelsea overachieved when winning the league, swept along by Mourinho's astute organisation and one last, inspirational turn from captain John Terry? What if 2014-15 is the only season Eden Hazard is Footballer of the Year? That makes Mourinho the genius, not the jinx.

He won the league with this lot? He won the league with a team now playing like the poorest champions in history? He won with single-season wonders, and old men, and players with a greatly inflated regard for their abilities and options?

If there are rebels inside Mourinho's camp, this is what they have failed to consider. That onlookers — managers and owners at other clubs, in particular — will wonder what is the real Chelsea.

It was only on February 3, 2014, that Mourinho described his team as a little horse. 'Needs milk, needs to learn how to jump,' he said. By the end of the following November, Chelsea were six points clear at the top of the table. That was some giddyup.

It isn't just Mourinho's reputation that is suffering. Go through Chelsea man for man right now and consider how many would make the great sides of Europe — or even get into Manchester United's defence or Manchester City's front three? On current form, how many would start for Arsenal against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night?

And Hazard to Real Madrid? They don't buy players on the back of one brilliant shift. Gareth Bale destroyed Inter Milan in October 2010 and it was September 2013 when he finally got his move to the Bernabeu. Between the young Cristiano Ronaldo starring in the 2004 FA Cup final against Millwall and signing for Real Madrid he played 252 games for Manchester United.

Sat in the Stamford Bridge stand, his Major League Soccer season at an end, was Frank Lampard. Now there was a player. He didn't just have one great year, or a good half-season, like Cesc Fabregas. Time after time, campaign after campaign, Lampard delivered for Chelsea. He must have viewed this shadow of a team with quiet despair.

Eden Hazard (centre) has been linked with a move to Real Madrid but is not showing the form to justify it

Even the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo had to show more than one good shift to earn a move to the Bernabeu

Lampard scored 13 goals when Chelsea won the league under Mourinho in 2004-05, then went out the following season and scored 16 as they retained it. Season after season his goals from midfield drove the club: 19, 20, 21, 20, 20, 27. That is the mark of a champion. Not this.

Maybe Mourinho has lost the ability to inspire his players. Maybe they are exhausted by the endless confrontations and demands, as Fabio Capello intimated. There are enough people advancing that theory, because the modern way is to hold the manager responsible for every fault. It is easier, after all, to change one coach than 11 players.

Yet there is a tipping point, a moment at which Chelsea's form becomes so inexplicably poor that the blame cannot be placed with one man. Yes, Mourinho has made mistakes this season — but none that would adequately explain the extent of this collapse.

This is football's equivalent of receiving a manuscript from Ian McEwan littered with spelling mistakes, or arriving at an Alfred Brendel recital to hear the piano played out of tune. It makes no sense.

Frank Lampard will have viewed this shadow of a team with quiet despair as he watched on against Liverpool

Mourinho has been successful throughout his career, while some of his players only recently won prizes

Manchester United suffered after Sir Alex Ferguson retired — but only fell to seventh place. They were never in a relegation fight.

True, few mitigated Andre Villas-Boas or Roberto Di Matteo at Chelsea, but they did not have Mourinho's sustained record of success. So let's play devil's advocate. What if Chelsea's squad has been overestimated? How would that case be made?

Start with the Brazilian connection. Oscar, Ramires and Willian were part of a World Cup squad who were torn apart in their own backyard in 2014. Oscar, from a higher position than Lampard, has scored 19 goals in 100 Premier League appearances. Willian is tireless in effort but hardly a unique presence in the highest echelons of European football. Most Champions League teams have an energetic Willian or Ramires type in their ranks.

Matic and Branislav Ivanovic are Serbia internationals. Serbia finished fourth in a five-team group in the European Championship, behind Portugal, Albania and Denmark. Considering the talent at their disposal, Serbia are arguably the biggest underachievers in European football. Albania conceded five goals in that group, Serbia 13. Serbia let in 1.62 goals per game on average, the Faroe Islands 1.7. Not exactly belt and braces are they?

Chelsea's defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic has underperformed with Serbia at international level

Kurt Zouma is young and lacking experience, Cesar Azpilicueta is a solid left back but hardly Roberto Carlos or even Ashley Cole, while Gary Cahill never looks as good for England as he does for Chelsea when John Terry is at the top of his game. And Terry isn't at the top of his game. He may never be again.

Trevor Francis watched the Liverpool defeat and announced that Terry's legs had gone, and it could be the superhuman effort of playing every game last season proves his last hurrah. A defender's decline can be sudden. Rio Ferdinand hit a wall in his final year with Queens Park Rangers; Gary Neville was forced into abrupt retirement at Manchester United. Peak Terry is Chelsea's true nonpareil.

It is his fading influence that is the key factor this season, and there really is no comparable replacement, even if Abramovich wanted to throw half a yacht at it.

Fabregas typically fades midway through the season — which was why Barcelona let him go — so Chelsea must be hoping his typical trajectory is reversed. As for Diego Costa, his petulant kick on Martin Skrtel on Saturday — which could easily have earned him another ban — shows a player who does not engage with the team and their predicament.

John Terry's fading influence that is the key factor this season as Chelsea have fallen down the table

If he put as much effort into scoring the goals to get Chelsea out of trouble as he does into acting up off the ball he could actually be of some use. Since January 20, however, he has scored six goals in 27 matches for club and country — against a sliding Southampton, Hull, Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa. A bully in more ways than one.

And, of course, this may be an unfairly caustic appraisal of a squad that won the title with reasonable comfort last season. Chelsea certainly looked convincing champions — and were damn close to it the season before. Yet a false reading of potential makes as much sense as imagining that one of the finest and most successful managers of any generation has suddenly forgotten how to win football matches.

Whatever fate befalls Mourinho, the players will not escape unscathed if this slump continues. Their reputations are on the line every bit as much as his and there will be professional consequences if it does not turn around. The world is watching and, whatever the mood behind closed doors, Chelsea should not be as bad as this.

UEFA WILL FEEL THE NOISE MORE THAN EVER NOW

UEFA will realise the folly of their action against Manchester City, when the Champions League anthem is played in Seville on Tuesday. Do not expect the travelling fans to behave, and their booing may even inspire the locals to join them. After the latest slew of revelations and suspensions, everyone has a reason to despise UEFA right now.

How entirely counter-productive this issue will prove. The pre-game jeers at the Etihad Stadium were dying down. Increasingly, they were seen by those outside the club as contributing to an air of negativity around City's European matches, and in time the fans may have reached that conclusion, too. If Manchester City are to succeed in the Champions League, they need to embrace the event, not act as if elimination is a blessing.

Manchester City fans can continue to boo the UEFA anthem on Champions League nights in act of defiance

Now the fans have the best of both worlds. They can still boo UEFA's corporate anthem — but as a positive, a way of showing defiance, of getting behind their team. Wouldn't it be great to boo this to the heavens before a televised audience of 400million at the final?

That will be the new attitude. UEFA hoped to stifle dissent; instead they've started a movement. Smart move, gentlemen.

And while we're at it...

Michel Platini has had his third, or maybe fourth, swing at explaining how £1.3million of FIFA's money ended up in his pocket on a handshake. This one included the sudden manifestation of an invoice and a declaration to the taxman and, as such, was every bit as convincing as all the others.

Michel Platini has tried to explain how £1.3million of FIFA's money ended up in his pocket on a handshake

If, as expected, Sam Burgess now returns to rugby league it will be the final confirmation — if any were needed — that England's Rugby World Cup campaign was mismanaged at the highest level. Burgess was fast-tracked, over-promoted and exposed by Stuart Lancaster and his coaching team.

As a result, a player who could, long term, have been a huge asset to union has been lost and others may be reluctant to follow. The ramifications of this for England could echo far beyond the final blast of Nigel Owens's whistle.

If Sam Burgess now returns to rugby league it will see a potential long-term asset lost from union

David Dein has long been regarded as one of the smoothest political operators in world football. So when he says FIFA's reputation is damaged beyond repair, and the organisation should be dissolved and formed again, we are told it is time to listen.

Yet Dein was among those who encouraged the Football Association to try to work for change within FIFA, when it was obvious football's guardians were corrupted beyond salvation. For a man of such great insight, he's a bit late with the skinny on this one.

David Dein was among those who encouraged the Football Association to try to work for change within FIFA

LOUIS VAN GAAL'S QUIPS AS DULL AS HIS SIDE

It is now 325 minutes since Manchester United scored and that must change against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday night. Louis van Gaal may be building from the back, as good coaches do, but there is a balance. The reason the goalless draw with Manchester City was not the fine outcome some claimed was because the front players were so utterly ineffectual. It wasn't just that defenders played well — the forwards were blunt.

The same happened against Middlesbrough and now Crystal Palace. 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,' said Van Gaal, responding to criticism from Paul Scholes. It may be worse than we thought. Even his comebacks are dull.

Louis van Gaal responded to criticism from Paul Scholes with a dull comeback that reflected his team

Klaus Stohlker, PR man for Sepp Blatter, is promising a bravura plan of attack as his client fights to clear his name. 'Sepp will be going on the offensive over the next few weeks,' he insisted. Not the best choice of words, perhaps. Blatter's very presence has offended for many years now.

Sepp Blatter's PR man has promised that his client will 'go on the offensive' in a bid to clear his name

Massimo Cellino says he would lie awake at night asking whether he was good enough to run Leeds. The supporters gave him the answer last week. Now he claims he will sell up to a fans' group. 'I am sad and embarrassed,' Cellino admitted. 'My dream was to do my best, but I have achieved nothing.'

Oh, please, spare us. We know why Cellino was here. We know why he is going, too. We'll find out how much he truly thinks of Leeds fans when he sets the removal fee.

We'll find out how much Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino thinks of the fans when he sets a removal fee

Whether it is a simple coming of age or the work of Stoke City's management staff and goalkeeping coach Andy Quy, the transition of Jack Butland from novice to Joe Hart's genuine rival is the most impressive improvement of this season.