A matter of "when, not if" is the situation that Jose Mourinho finds himself in, in terms of him being sacked by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
Chelsea slumped to their ninth defeat of the English Premier League this season at Leicester City on Monday, with Mourinho then going on a tirade against his players, insisting he had been "betrayed" by them.
Mourinho also clearly has issues with some individual players as well, after Eden Hazard joined Diego Costa in publicly defying their manager.
Costa had said a few choice words during a match after Mourinho berated him for not being in the right position to finish off a move, before the striker showed his frustrations at being left on the bench for the next game by throwing a bib towards the Portuguese.
Both player and manager insisted there were no issues and a mountain was being made out of a molehill, but problems with yet another player was clear for everyone to see. There were two instances, actually – one widely publicised, the other not so much.
The one that was written about aplenty happened during the loss to Leicester City, with Eden Hazard taking himself off after getting injured, while also throwing a dismissive wave at Mourinho as he walked off the pitch. The one that wasn't as publicised happened during Chelsea's Champions League win over FC Porto. After Hazard was substituted, Mourinho, as the player walked towards the bench, went to pat him on the cheek, but the Belgian swatted his manager's hand away.
There clearly are problems in the club at the moment, with the Chelsea players not willing to or unable to reach the levels they managed so often last season.
Only Mourinho and the players will know if the manager really has lost the dressing room, but according to The Telegraph, the former Real Madrid, Inter Milan and FC Porto manager will get the sack sooner rather than later.
Compensation has been deemed to be a problem for Chelsea, with Mourinho signing a new four-year contract in August. However, the same report claims there is a clause in the contract, wherein Chelsea have to pay the manager, if fired, £10million in compensation.
That price could rise if Mourinho finds himself out of a job for more than a year, because the clause states Chelsea have to pay him either one year's salary up front or continue to pay him, according to the terms of his contract, until he finds new employment. While Mourinho's season this campaign has been a disaster, there will be no shortage of clubs wanting his services.
Either way, though, it does look like Mourinho's time as Chelsea manager is slowly but surely coming to an end.
