Premier League

Fabregas denies leading 'mini-revolt' at Chelsea

Toby Keel

Cesc Fabregas has denied being at the heart of a "mini-revolt" at Chelsea which has wrecked the side's season and undermined Jose Mourinho's position as manager.

A blog post by The Secret Footballer claimed that a player protest at Stamford Bridge has been orchestrated by former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder Fabregas.


But the player took to Twitter to deny the claim, saying that "I am extremely happy at Chelsea and have an excellent relationship with the manager."



The original blog post pulled no punches in its claims.

"I’m told that Cesc Fabregas is the leader of that mini-revolt. And as a player, you do things like this when you know you are in the right," the post claimed. "You try your luck. Why not? It’s your way of saying to the manager: 'You can either listen to us, and give the go ahead to change and give us what we want, or we’ll keep serving you up the same old s*** and embarrass you.'"


[ANALYSIS: Decision has already been made to fire Jose Mourinho]

The blog also alleges two ways in which Mourinho has lost his authority as manager. First up was the treatment of former club doctor Eva Carneiro and physio John Hearn, who were given a public dressing down. " Managers pick on staff and players all the time in order to make a wider point to the squad and remind them who is in charge," the Secret Footballer writes.


"But in this case, Mourinho could not have got it more wrong. Fearn and Carniero are loved at Chelsea… Mourinho has made a massive mistake in trying to make his point at the expense of two members of staff who were just doing their job."


That's just the start of it, however: there is also a claim that Mourinho wanted to bench John Terry this season in order to establish that he is the man in charge, not the former England skipper. But it backfired: " Mourinho has tried to follow that through but suspensions and loss of form has meant that he’s needed to play Terry. So that particular sacrifice looks half-arsed now. It undermines him in the minds of the players."


The upshot, according to the article, was, "the total and utter abandonment of Mourinho and his philosophy by the players. Mourinho is bang to rights and the players know it, so they are now trying to make their point on the pitch.


"I have it on the best authority possible that the players have told the manager that they hate the way they play. They hate the way they have to sit back against inferior opposition; they hate the way they aren’t allowed to express themselves."

OUR VIEW

This is a very difficult one. The Secret Footballer is widely believed to be Dave Kitson, who played alongside Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic for half a season when both were at Stoke; therefore it is conceivable that he does have an inside line. Yet the speed and strength of Fabregas's denial does seem to cut the story dead.


Then again, what else could Fabregas possibly say? The constant flood of information strongly suggests that the dressing room strife is very real - take as theBBC report at the weekend that a "senior player" said that he would "rather lose than win for Mourinho", for example.