Chelsea Transfer News: Jose Mourinho Hints Board Must Correct Summer Mistakes

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has called on the club’s hierarchy to rectify the mistakes made in the summer by helping him bring in some new faces in the January window.

The Blues’ disastrous 2015-16 term continued to get worse on Monday evening, as they slumped to a 2-1 loss against surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City. The win sees the Foxes move 20 points clear of the reigning champions.

Afterwards, Mourinho spoke candidly about the decisions made by the club this summer, per Laurie Whitwell of the MailOnline:

"

I told them in beginning of the season I was expecting to not have needs for the January market. The January market is by itself a dangerous market. Sometimes you get players in emergency but they are not players you really want. Sometimes you do in January because you don’t have the right decisions from what you can do in July. 

I want the board to make the right decisions for the club. This is the most important thing.

"

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Chelsea’s major summer acquisitions were Pedro, Radamel Falcao, Asmir Begovic and Baba Rahman, with none of the quartet able to make a major impact so far. Mourinho was clearly keen on adding to other areas of the squad, though, with Everton rebuffing multiple offers from the Blues for their prodigious young defender John Stones.

Even so, as Barney Ronay of the Guardian noted in the aftermath of the loss to Leicester, Chelsea have spent heavily this calendar year:

Mourinho has kept together the core of a squad which coasted to Premier League glory last season too. Players like Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, John Terry and Eden Hazard were magnificent throughout 2014-15, but this campaign they have all suffered drastic losses of form, with Chelsea teetering just one point above the relegation zone.

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The January window is, as Mourinho implies, a dangerous time to add players, with little quality available for an inflated sum. However, looking at Chelsea’s current predicament, it seems necessary to some that they need to add fresh faces in order to prompt a move away from the bottom half of the table.

Signing a couple of players wouldn’t immediately amend the deep-rooted issues at the club, though. As noted here by Ben Smith of BBC Sport, Mourinho seems willing to blame everyone but himself at the moment:

Indeed, a team is a reflection of its manager and while there’s no disputing Mourinho’s stellar record, at this juncture his Chelsea side are a fractured, feeble rabble.

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Instead of resorting to blaming the lack of summer transfers and the players themselves for the disappointing sequence of results, Mourinho must get everyone pointing in the same direction if the Blues are to thrive again.

As noted by Oliver Kay of the Times, some of the Portuguese’s protestations are bordering on ridiculous and that can't paint him in a positive light with his players:

Throwing money at the problem in January is not going to solve the issue. Bringing fresh blood into a squad that is already seemingly lacking in harmony could skew the balance further, especially when considering the pressure any new players would be under to perform given Chelsea’s slump.

As the Portuguese continues to look for answers and apportion culpability to those around him, perhaps it’s time his focus turned a little closer to home.