Mourinho blames lack of signings for Chelsea failure

Jose

Mourinho says a lack of signings left Chelsea's players

in the comfort zone and caused the woeful Premier

League title defence that prompted his departure.

Chelsea were dominant last season as Mourinho won

his third and the club's fourth Premier League crown,

the Blues topping the table by eight points from

nearest rivals Manchester City.

However, their attempt to retain the championship has

been hugely disappointing and Mourinho parted

company with the club for the second time in

December after the team lost nine of their opening 16

league matches, while rumours surfaced of dressing

room discontent.

The Portuguese believes Chelsea's failure in the

transfer market was a key factor, with Everton

defender John Stones among the targets they missed

out on during the close-season.

And the former Porto, Inter and Real Madrid coach

feels that a lack of investment contributed to

Chelsea's stars underperforming.

"If you are in a club that wins, if you want to win

again, you have to create instability in the winners," he

told Sky Sports.

"To do this, you have to make them doubt, you have to

buy new players, you have to take them outside their

comfort zone because if you win, there is a normal

tendency to go to a comfort zone."

Mourinho won La Liga during his time in charge of

Madrid and while he acknowledged it was difficult to

overcome fellow superpower Barcelona, he also

criticised the lack of competitive balance in matches

against other Spanish clubs.

"I always say that I need competition and I need

competition every week and in Spain, I was at an

amazing club but I had four matches a year: Barcelona

v Real Madrid, Real Madrid v Barcelona and after that

we'd win 4-0, 5-0, 4-1, 6-1," he said.

"It was difficult to win because two monsters are

together, but it was easy to win matches. Difficult to

win the league because you are competing against

another team that also win and win and win like you

do, so in the end, I was champion in Spain with 100

points and I lost a league in Spain with 91 points.

"In England, you can win the leagues with 75 points,

maybe less, so I needed competition."