Football pundit and former Liverpool player Graeme Souness will not be changing his opinion of Chelsea, despite coming in for criticism from Blues manager Jose Mourinho.
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Souness slammed Chelsea’s display on Tuesday night, as they bowed out of the Champions League to 10 man Paris Saint-Germain, as “pathetic”, following Blues players’ reactions after a Zlatan Ibrahimovic tackle on Oscar, resulting in a red card for the influential Swede. The Scot had blamed Chelsea’s players of influencing the referee’s decision after every single outfield player surrounded him, urging the Bjorn Kuipers to show red.
In Mourinho’s pre-match press conference this Friday he criticised Souness and his managerial record saying, “The difference between me and Souness is this – Souness as a player, up there. Jose Mourinho as a player, down here. Jose Mourinho as a manager, up here. Souness as a manager, down there.
“With another difference: I was not a frustrated man because I was not a top player. He is clearly a frustrated man.”
Writing in his Sunday Times column, Souness’ retort said he was unwilling to alter his stance on Chelsea.
He wrote, “He had his say about me at his press conference on Friday and he is entitled to his opinion, but it won’t change mine.
“When he reflects on what went wrong against PSG and addresses it , I hope – yet doubt – that will include the obsession with gamesmanship.
“It seemed more important to Chelsea than getting on the ball and taking on PSG in a game of football, which they were more than capable of winning. They are a far better team than they showed. Getting the opposition booked by their excessive reaction to fouls became their priority. I was angered and saddened by that approach.”
Following their Champions League exit, Chelsea sit top of the Premier League table, six points clear of second placed Manchester City going into the business end of the season.