Chelsea owner speaks to players following José Mourinho's sacking

Roman Abramovich showed a lot of patience towards José Mourinho, considering the club's current situation and his previous ways of dealing with under-performing managers, but with Chelsea just one point above the Premier League's relegation zone, the owner ultimately decided to cut ties with the manager.  Despite the bad results, the decision was greeted with disapproval from fans and media like, leaving some quite distraught even.

With (many of) the players possibly feeling the same way, Abramovich went to Chelsea's training ground at Cobham today to deliver a speech to our first-team players and clear the air on his decision-making and the club's future.

Roman Abramovich has promised the Chelsea players a fresh start in a speech made to the entire first-team squad at the club's Cobham training ground on Friday.

[...] In a relatively short speech that was made with the help of a translator, Abramovich told the players that the dismissal of Mourinho heralded a fresh start for everybody at the beleaguered club.

He also confided that he had not wanted to sack Mourinho, but he felt he had no choice with the club just a point above the Premier League relegation zone going into Saturday's game against Sunderland.

-Source: The Telegraph

The report also claims that Abramovich might have met José Mourinho as the (now former) manager went back to Cobham today to pick up whatever he had left there yesterday. Abramovich was also set to hold talks with Guus Hiddink over his possible appointment to fill the managerial vacancy.

Much like Michael Emenalo, Abramovich seems to hold the quality of our current squad in much higher regard than they've shown on the pitch in recent times.  Given their achievements in the last few seasons, that's not unreasonable.  And it's also the only option now available to the club leadership, after having sacked Mourinho.  We can fire the manager, but we can't fire all the players.  We need them to perform once again, we need them confident again, we need them winning again.  Somehow.

The timing of this decision remains questionable, and by the looks of it, the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge may not be too happy, to say the least.  The only thing that will ease the pain is winning.