Jose Mourinho: I will still be Chelsea manager even if the club finishes in mid-table

Confident: Jose Mourinho thinks a mid-table finish for Chelsea will not threaten his position as coach
Julian Finney/Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj16 October 2015

Jose Mourinho believes he will still be the manager of Chelsea even if the club finishes the season in mid-table.

The Blues have endured an awful start to their Premier League title defence after losing six of their opening 12 matches in all competitions, with their four defeats in the top-flight this term having left the champions in 16th place.

The loss to Southampton at Stamford Bridge before the international break resulted in Mourinho saying he would not resign before the club issued a rare public statement of support for the Portuguese coach, who led Chelsea to the Premier League title in May.

Despite admitting he does not foresee himself ending his coaching career at the club, Mourinho insisted he will still be in charge of Chelsea even if the Blues do not secure a Champions League spot by the end of this season.

When asked if he would still be at the club if Chelsea end the season in mid-table, Mourinho said: "Yes."

When then questioned whether he had been backed over such a situation by the club's hierarchy, he replied: "No. I was not told that because we don't expect to finish mid-table.

"It's different [this time] for many reasons. I don't think it's different just now, but since the moment I came back in 2013. When I had my first conversation with the owner and the board in 2013."

Chelsea currently sit 10 points adrift of league leaders Manchester City - a gap that Mourinho previously admitted was too large for the Blues to be able to reduce and, as a result, challenge for the Premier League title this season.

With the champions seven points off fourth spot, though, the Portuguese coach admitted his side could still secure a Champions League place this term - although he warned fans the Blues could also miss out on Europe's elite competition.

"In the beginning of the season I said that this championship is so dangerous that, two years ago, Man United were out of the top four. Last year Liverpool were out of the top four. And this year somebody will be out of the top four," he said.

"Somebody can be Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Man City, Arsenal. And I'm not speaking about Tottenham, Everton and Swansea, teams that try and have a chance of being in amongst the top four.

"Somebody will be out. Do I think it's Chelsea? No, I don't think it's Chelsea. But I said in pre-season, when everybody had zero points, that there's a big risk because the competition is very difficult."

Ranking Chelsea's signings so far this season

1/6

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in