I DIDN’T WANT TO SACK HIM

Angry Abramovich tells players: Get us out of this mess

yesterday, but Faria’s popularity with the players had reached an alltime low by the time he was dismissed.

Chelsea hope to confirm Guus Hiddink, 69, as interim manager over the weekend.

Assistant manager Steve Holland took training yesterday and will pick the team for today’s clash with Sunderland at Stamford Bridge.

He will be without Eden Hazard, who substituted himself with a hip injury in the 2-1 defeat at Leicester on Monday.

Abramovich watched Holland take the morning session with Roberto Di Matteo’s former assistant Eddie Newton alongside him.

Abramovich then addressed the squad in his native Russian, using an interpreter and telling the players that he did not want to sack Mourinho only seven months after winning the Premier League title.

The club’s owner added that it was a fresh start for the squad and reminded them that they remain English champions.

Abramovich sacked Mourinho after they were beaten for the ninth time in the league this season.

The result leaves Chelsea one point above the bottom three heading into a run of Christmas fixtures that, after Sunderland, features matches against Watford, Manchester United and Crystal Palace.

Hiddink arrived in London for talks yesterday, but the reality is that he has been in negotiations with the hierarchy for weeks.

Mourinho knew the club were sounding out potential candidates about his position as negotiations over his pay-off continued throughout his final weeks at the club.

Hiddink told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: ‘I want to get some good insight before I make my decision. Whether or not I’m visiting their next match depends on my conversation.’

Hiddink, 69, was parachuted into the same caretaker role in 2009 when the club fired Brazil’s World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari mere months after he had been hired as the latest dream ticket.

The Dutchman led the team to the FA Cup and recovered enough ground to qualify for the Champions League before returning to the Russian national team. His career has nosedived in recent years and he was fired as Holland boss before they failed to qualify for Euro 2016.

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia and sporting director Michael Emenalo will continue to work on long-term options. Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone is one target, but the fiery Argentine remains determined to lift the European Cup with the Spanish club. He has a contract until 2020 that comes with a £15m buyout clause. Paying it would prove no problem for Chelsea.

The champions have also been monitoring Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri after he took the club to last season’s Champions League final. Allegri, who has won Serie A with Milan and Juventus, is adept at working with various tactical formations.

Pep Guardiola, who pulled out of a deal to join Chelsea in 2012 when they fired Di Matteo, remains their first choice.