Jose Mourinho issues strong warning to Chelsea stars: Man up or else I'll play the kids!

The problem is, he does not like too much what he is seeing from his Chelsea players at the moment.

It was here in south west Portugal that Mourinho made his name with Porto, defying the odds to lift the Champions League in 2004 a year after winning the UEFA Cup.

Reward is a statue of Mourinho in the club's museum and he visited it last night.

"It's absolutely amazing," he said. "And when you are lucky to be part of it, not just a simple visitor but somebody who deserves to be part of that museum, it's very emotional.

"You realise you did something important, something that time will not delete."

You suspect he would delete Chelsea's start to the defence of the Premier League crown with the club eight points of leaders Manchester United and he warned his players that if they are out of all the competitions, he will bring in the youngsters.

"At this moment we're in an open situation," said Mourinho. "It's difficult to win the Premier League, but possible.

"It's difficult to win the Champions League, but possible. It's difficult to win the cups, but possible.

"I explained to the players that when the situation is open I have to do both things - to try and prepare the kids for their future and at the same time to try and bring the best out of the other players, the players with more stability and experience.

"But if the season goes in one direction that it becomes closed, and we can't win, I will go just with the kids.

"It makes no sense when you have nothing to win to play the older players. I'll play the players we're waiting for instead.

"I can arrive in a moment where I will look to the kids and say, 'let's go, non-stop.' I am ruthless."

On Saturday they trailed Newcastle 2-0 before a late comeback earned a 2-2 draw, and they have conceded seven first-half goals in seven league matches this season.

And it led to the amazing attack on his players yesterday.

Mourinho said: "We have no problems physically. Clearly it's an attitude perspective of some individuals.

"And when you have individuals with that unstable attitude in terms of motivation, desire and commitment you will pay.

"I just try to be honest. I'm honest with the ones I'm happy with, and honest with the ones I'm not happy with.

"Even the ones I'm not happy with I have to be honest with them and try to make them perform again in a continuous way.

"At the moment what is happening with us is not that we're not performing. But we're not performing in a continuous way, that's our problem.

"For example in our biggest defeat, 3-0 against Manchester City, the first-half was very, very bad, but in the second-half we were the best team and put them in really big trouble.

"They were defending the 1-0 with defenders in midfield so the 3-0 was completely out of context."

Mourinho's Porto success paved the way for his move to Stamford Bridge - where he christened himself 'The Special One' - and all the success that has subsequently followed.

But desperate to find a way to lift his men out of their slump, Mourinho went on to describe what makes a real champion - like him.

He said: "There are two sorts of champions. There are champions who win something and there are lots of them, but there are the other champions who during their career they win one, two, three, four, five, 10 or 20 titles.

"In this club we have 25 champions from last year, but champions, serial champions in this squad, how many do we have?

"Of course it's very difficult to win every season, especially in the Premier League. But you can be a serial champion in your approach and your attitude.

"If this season we finish second or third, but we fight every minute of every game and in the end someone has two more points than us, then we don't go from serial champions to losers."