Jose Mourinho hits back at 'envious' Graeme Souness over cheating Chelsea criticism

JOSE MOURINHO has accused Graeme Souness of being envious – after the former Liverpool manager attacked his side for cheating.

Jose MourinhoGETTY

Jose Mourinho has hit back at criticism from Graeme Souness

Sky TV pundit Souness slammed Chelsea as “pathetic” after their midweek Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain for surrounding the referee, feigning injury and getting Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off.

Another former Liverpool star an pundit Jamie Carragher also joined in the criticism, but Mourinho, ahead of his side’s crucial Premier League clash with Southampton, hit back.

The Chelsea manager said: “Jamie stopped playing a couple of years ago and forgot everything he did on the pitch.

“Mr Souness also, but he stopped playing a long time ago. I coached Benfica after he left there, I know a lot about him, so much about him.

“But I have 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 a man. It's about life.”

Mourinho slams pundit Carragher [AMBIENT]

Mourinho added: “The world is strange. Maybe because of diet and maybe the quality of the products we are eating, memories are getting shorter.

“Because, you know, when Carragher and Souness speak about it, they are having a problem for sure.

“The game on Wednesday finished, and I was in the tunnel and 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. That is the way we behave after a defeat.

Graeme Souness slammed Chelsea as pathetic after the Champions League defeat to PSGGETTY

Graeme Souness slammed Chelsea as pathetic after the Champions League defeat to PSG

But I have a certain kind of education, not just in football but in life, and I prefer to laugh

Jose Mourinho

"If the players surround the referee we are charged and we have to pay a fine. We have, in this moment, eight or nine months of competition and we were charged once.”

That was when they were fined £30,000 for failing to control their players against Everton last month.

But Mourinho insisted he has complete faith in his players – and that they will now go on to win the league: “The people who went out of the Champions League last Wednesday, are the same people who have been top of the Premier League from day one.

“The same people who won the Carling Cup. The same people who are going to win the Premier League. Exactly the same people.”

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