Henk ten Cate

Henk ten Cate has been rebuked by the Chelsea board for his outburst denouncing certain players at Stamford Bridge.

The assistant manager told a newspaper in his native Netherlands: "What does irritate me is when players from a squad deliberately leak stuff [to the press]. The training ground should be a safe zone."

Ten Cate, no stranger to briefing Dutch journalists off the record, was stung when his training-ground altercation with John Terry made its way into the public domain. He had clashed with the club captain in the final training session before the team's Carling Cup final defeat.

However, it is his criticism of certain players, hard on the heels of the confrontation with Terry, that has drawn censure. The club do not want any rifts developing between management and players, and have told Ten Cate to keep quiet.

The former Ajax coach was added to the manager Avram Grant's staff in October to work in tandem with Steve Clarke, the only survivor from the Jose Mourinho regime, but his abrasive nature has failed to win him popularity.

Grant would like to bring in another coach this summer, one from his native Israel, but his immediate concern is surviving that long himself.