Jose Mourinho knows what's wrong with Chelsea, striker ruled out for 'weeks'

José Mourinho press conferences have become gloomier over the past few months, as one would expect, given the poor string of results. The Chelsea boss often looks tired or irritated by the questions he's asked, and at whoever did the asking. But even at his current mood, the Blues manager is still capable of offering soem gold to the press, such as when he was asked how much time he has left with the club:

"Four years. Or to be precise three years, seven months."

Outside of his contract length, Mourinho offered his thoughts on the rumours about distress in Chelsea's locker room steaming from a first-team player preferring to lose rather than win a game under Mou's command, and Cesc Fàbregas supposedly leading a mutiny against him:

"It's a sad accusation because you are talking about one player, or more. You are accusing them of dishonesty."

"If I accuse you of being dishonest I think you would be very upset and would take legal action. I think it's a question for the players, not me."

"They give their all every minute of every training session. Very good professional relationship. Training always in the limits of the quality and their effort and always with a strong desire to win the next match which we try to do tomorrow."

The Portuguese manager also asserted that he knows what Chelsea's current problems are -- and how they are exclusively "football problems":

"Yes I know (what the problem is). I'll be here for a long time. It's a combination of factors."

"Some of them I don't want to touch them but yes I know. I don't want to blame social or political problems."

"They are football problems."

For their stature, José Mourinho and Chelsea find themselves at a rather strange place. The club have been struggling with their worst start for a season under Roman Abramovich's ownership, while Mourinho hadn't faced this kind of difficulty in his career yet. But the manager believes that despite being at the top for so many years, he's still more than capable of facing these problems upfront:

"Yesterday a friend sent me some quotes of my press conference of my Champions League winning speech in May 2004. In that press conference I said one day in my career bad results will come."

"That was back in 2004 after winning the Champions League with Porto. May 2004."

"So, 11 years later, I resisted well to the nature of my job, to the nature of football, 11 years waiting for this. It took time, but I'm strong and stable to face this moment."

Asked about his process of learning while being at the top of his career, Mourinho explained the importance of self-assessment and discussing with his assistants in his job:

"When you reach my level it's difficult to learn from others, you have to learn from yourself. That's why I have a staff of assistants who are willing to discuss every part of our jobs."

Radamel Falcao has been linked with a move to several clubs, as he still hasn't justified all the trust Mourinho had onto him. And to make matters worse for the striker, it seems that he'll be out of Chelsea's line-up for some time due to injury:

"[Falcao has an] important muscular injury and will be out for a few weeks."

To wrap it up, the boss commented on tomorrow's game against Dynamo Kiev at Stamford Bridge for the Champions League, claiming that it's not a must-win match for the club as they look to qualify for the competition's play-off:

"The reality is that the game tomorrow is not a game we have to win. A draw tomorrow with two more victories means we will qualify."

"We have an important game. But it is not a game we need to win. I'm convinced we can finish first. If not first, then second."

-José Mourinho; Source: The Telegraph

Mourinho's job security seems to be running at a very thin line, and with rumours and reports guaranteeing his dismissal after the Stoke City game next weekend, it doesn't sound like the manager has gotten this sort of message from the club yet. Whether or not these are all baseless rumours or the truth itself, only time will tell. Until then, we can only wait for good results to come in the next games.