Chelsea’s José Mourinho hits back at Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness

José Mourinho has hit back at Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness for their criticisms of the behaviour of Chelsea's players while exiting the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek, accusing both former Liverpool stalwarts of having short memories of their own conduct as players.

The sight of nine of the London club's outfield players crowding round the Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers, following Zlatan Ibrahimovic's challenge on Oscar against PSG had been branded "disgraceful" by Carragher in his capacity as a pundit for Sky. Souness, sitting at his side in the studio at Stamford Bridge, was equally scathing and described the conduct as "pathetic" while praising PSG as "a proper team" for standing up to their hosts.

“You know the world is a big strange,” said Mourinho. “Maybe because of diet and maybe the quality of the products we are eating, but memories are getting shorter. Because, you know, when Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness speak about it, it’s because they are having a problem for sure.

“Jamie stopped playing a couple of years ago and, in two years, he has forgotten everything he did on the pitch. Mr Souness also, but he stopped playing a long time ago.

Biggest tribute

“ I coached Benfica after he left there so I know a lot about him, so much about him. But I have had a certain kind of education, not just in football but in life, and I prefer to laugh. Envy is the biggest tribute that the shadows do to the man. It’s about life.”

Mourinho offered a strong defence of his players’ conduct by pointing out that Chelsea have only been charged once this season for failing to control their players following last month’s 1-0 win over Everton, where a melee on the pitch also saw the visitors sanctioned.

“If they surround the referee [in the Premier League] we are charged and we have to pay a fine, and if we do that the players pay the fine,” said Mourinho, whose team were fined £30,000 by the English FA for that incident against Everton.

“We have, in this moment, I think had eight or nine months of competition and we were charged once. We paid for that. It’s as simple as that. Go to the Premier League and see how many teams were charged and how many times. Chelsea were charged once.

“Against PSG the game finished and I was in the tunnel. One by one not just the players but the coaches and everybody from PSG I shook their hands. I told them they deserved it. I wished them good luck for the future. This was the way we behave after a defeat. This is the example my players get after a defeat. I went to my dressing room, I put everybody together, not just the players, and because I am normally very calm and think people deserve to go home and reflect before they speak so as to be without any doubt or emotion, this is what we did.”

The manager conducted a meeting with his players on Thursday afternoon, discussing the elimination and drawing a line under that “chapter” of the campaign.

Five points

Southampton visit Stamford Bridge tomorrow with Chelsea’s lead currently five points with a game in hand. “

I’m very optimistic,” added Mourinho. “We also spoke about our future: to try and win the Premier League and, if we do that, a season with a Premier League title and the Capital One Cup is a brilliant season. A brilliant season.

“Chelsea have been top of the league since day one. Chelsea are not playing at the same level now as we were for many months, but a team cannot play fantastically well all season . . .

“But the people who lost and are out of the Champions League are the same people who have been top of the Premier League from day one. The same people who won the League Cup. The same people who are going to win the Premier League. . .” Guardian Service