LONDON — Jose Mourinho has been sacked as Chelsea manager.  

Just seven months after winning the Premier League titles and five months after agreeing a new four-year contract Mourinho was informed after taking training today (Dec 17) that he was fired after presiding over an incredible collapse in Chelsea’s results.  

A statement by the club said: “Results have not been good enough this season and we believe it is in the best interests of both parties to go our separate ways.”

This is the second time that Mourinho is leaving Stamford Bridge. First hired by Chelsea in 2004, he won the league twice before a fall-out led to his firing three years later. He was brought back in 2013 by owner Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea will install Guus Hiddink as caretaker manager until the end of the season.

Mourinho had been clinging to his job for several weeks but Abramovich has decided that he was unable to turn the team’s fortunes around after nine league defeats already this season.  

Mourinho has struggled to cope with the situation and his reactions to the results has played a major part in the decision.  

Abramovich had tried to give Mourinho as much time as possible but his patience snapped after the 2-1 defeat away to Leicester City on Monday evening. 

The result left Chelsea just a point above the relegation zone and 20 points behind league leaders Leicester although they are in the last 16 of the Champions League. 

After the game, Mourinho had also accused his players of betrayal. He said he had spent four days preparing for the game, and had identified four situations in which Leicester would score, only for his team to concede twice.

“Sometimes, I find myself thinking that last season I did an amazing job and I brought players to a level that they couldn’t keep it up for more than the super motivation to be leaders and almost champions. That is one possibility,” he said.

“Another possibility is that this season we start individually and collectively so bad that in the Premier League maybe, the sequence of bad results brought the players to a position in the table where they are not scared of relegation, where they feel they don’t belong to the relegation battle but where they don’t have the motivation to be champion, or to be top two or to be top four.”

The outburst was the latest in a series of controveries that have plagued Mourinho this season.

A 2-2 draw with Swansea on Aug 8 was overshadowed by a fallout with his medical team, in particular club doctor Eva Carneiro. 

Mourinho said his medical staff were “naive” for running onto the pitch to treat attacking midfielder Eden Hazard, and subsequently downgraded Carneiro who then left on Sept 22 and is now taking legal action against Mourinho and the club. 

Mourinho also received a suspended stadium ban and a £50,000 fine for claiming referees were “afraid” to award his team penalties in a 3-1 home loss to Southampton in October. 

He also served a one-match stadium ban and pay a £40,000 fine for his behaviour during a 2-1 defeat by West Ham, when he spoke to referee Jon Moss at half-time.

Although Mourinho signed a new four-year contract in the summer, he will not be paid up his contract in full – an amount that would be more than £30million.

Instead, he will be paid month by month until he finds a new job and then will receive a lump sum.

His backroom staff – including key allies Rui Faria and Silvino Louro – will depart with Mourinho.  

Hiddink, 69, was given the temporary job by Abramovich and his technical director Michael Emenalo after Mourinho was told his time was up this afternoon. He will meet the Chelsea players today and take training ahead of Saturday’s game against Sunderland at Stamford Bridge. 

Since the defeat to Leicester City on Monday, the club have been exploring possibilities to replace Mourinho. They did not want to appoint an interim manager again, having had to sack three managers in mid-season since 2009, but were left with no options given the available candidates.  

Hiddink won an FA Cup with Chelsea in 2009 when he combined the role with the Russia manager’s job. He replaced Luiz Felipe Scolari on that occasion and impressed Chelsea by steering the club into the Champions League places and winning a trophy. He proved popular among the players and there was thought given to appointing him permanently but his position with Russia made that impossible. 

He returns to Chelsea having been sacked from his last job as the Holland team coach towards the end of their failed Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. His record since leaving Chelsea has been mixed with Russia failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals. He was coach of the Turkey team that did not qualify for Euro 2012 and had a brief spell in charge of Anzhi Makhachkala.  

However, he now has the opportunity to take Chelsea on in the Champions League. 

Once again, there is the chance he could land the job on a permanent basis although the preferred candidates are Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH