THE SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH JOSE MOURINHO Guest of honour José Mourinho granted CPO (Chelsea Pitch Owners) director and Chelsea FC author Rick Glanvill an exclusive interview in the programme for tonights One Special Evening fundraising dinner. He talked about his decision to return, why the club deserved to win the 2012 Champions League final, and the love and loyalty of Blues fans. Here it is in full. ☼Rick Glanvill: Whats your response to those in football who say Never go back? ►José Mourinho: I have always thought this was a stupid phrase, but of course it depends - I would never go back where I was not happy. I think exactly the opposite. Is it a risk in respect of what happened before, people can forget, if things dont go in the same direction? Is that a risk? Maybe. But I dont think thats the Chelsea peoples culture. I always felt that Chelsea people were very connected with the ones that did something for the club in the past. I felt that so many times with players even coming to play at Stamford Bridge with a different shirt than our shirt, and the people treat them like they still belong to them. So I dont feel that risk and at the same time I think Im going to succeed, because what was proposed to me was not to come here, to click the fingers and to win straight away - we know that thats not the way to do it, especially this time, because this time the profile of the players and squad is different from when I came here in 2004. So Im sure Im going to succeed because I believe in the work, I believe in the club, I believe in the players, I believe in the global project. I believe in the club knowing that every transfer window we have to do good things to make the team better and better. So I think from me it was a very good decision to return. For the first time. Im building not just for me and for now, Im building and thinking of staying for a very long time. ☼RG: When you first walked out at Stamford Bridge the second time, it looked like you were keeping emotions in check. What did it feel like to be back? ►JM: You know, I took my family to the game - which I never do, only my son goes, never my daughter, never my wife - and they went because I want them to understand why I wanted to come back. Because you know my son was very young in my first period here, so I want to take them because they will understand immediately why I wanted so much to come back, and they got exactly the feeling what the club means for me, I mean for the club and also the atmosphere of a Premier League match. Not just around the pitch but also outside, walking around in the street before and after the game. I brought them for exactly that feeling. I was expecting something like the response there was, because I was here when players came back to play against Chelsea, I came back to manage against Chelsea with Inter, so I could imagine that to be back and go to Chelsea dugout would be something special, and it was. ☼RG: The teams changed; how have you changed as a manager since youve been away? ►JM: You know, big experiences. Two years of Italy, three years of Spain: its like finishing not just university but also your masters and PhD. I did everything in every country, always a big club in a big football country, always ambitions to win titles, always great players, always great opponents and big clubs as opponents in the domestic league. So I learnt a lot and experiences make me better. More than 100 matches in the Champions League, I dont know how many in leagues. So I come with a bigger catalogue of experiences. But I think my experience is bigger in the sense of the profile. I always try to have a career project, in the sense that here the first time, I never thought I would be at Chelsea for the rest of my career. When I went to Italy I went because I wanted to work in Italy, to feel the Italian league, the Italian philosophy of football and to compete against them. Two years of Italy, three years of Spain: its like finishing not just university but also your masters and PhD. After that I wanted to go to Spain. I want to go there not because my opponent will be the best team in the world - I dont care - but because I have a next project for my career. I will think about the next project when one day Chelsea thinks differently. But I dont think about that now, this time at Chelsea is a completely different profile. ☼RG: For the first time? ►JM: For the first time in my career. Im building not just for me and for now, Im building and thinking of staying for a very long time. So it is different, but Im basically the same. ☼RG: Chelsea fans loved that phrase you used I return as one of them - a Chelsea supporter. How did you watch the 2012 Champions League final? ►JM: You know first of all I was in the semi-final, and Chelsea was in the other semi- final and destiny wanted that we didnt play against each other, because we lost on penalties. ☼RG: The Real fans wanted to play Chelsea as well? ►JM: Because of Barcelona: Chelsea was playing against Barcelona. Was the same in Inter when we beat Barcelona in the semi-final - for Real is always the same feeling. So destiny didnt want us to play against Chelsea. I could watch the final without the sad feeling of losing in the semi-finals and you know football is football, football is big, I think Chelsea had the best night of its history, with for sure not the best team of its history, because the season was really bad and poor. If its not for that victory, Chelsea dont play Champions League in the next. I think it was justice. ☼RG: Football justice... ►JM: Football justice, because you have a semi-final with Ranieri that, to lose against Monaco the way you did was unbelievable - good for me! Was easy for me, the final was easy for me. After that, with me, lose the semi-final with the ghost goal. After that lose the semi-final on penalties, the final on penalties, and in the middle of that the scandal of the 2009 semi-final - one of the biggest scandals. Everything together, it would have been a disaster if Chelsea doesnt get a Champions League trophy, especially for this generation of players. Although obviously they were a much better team in their years before; the team that played the final in Moscow was incomparably better than the 2012 team. ☼RG: Where did you watch it? ►JM: At home with my family. Everything was perfect, that the last touch to give them the cup was Didiers - could only be Didier, Frank or John, could only one of them - and Petr made the saves as well. So I think was not the best game, was not the best performance but the holy grail came finally, and thats history, so they made history. ☼RG: You joked about becoming a pundit on UK TV to support Chelsea. Which of the players would make the best analyst? ►JM: You know I think its not a difficult job when you were somebody who belonged to the game, who has been on the pitch, it is not difficult. Its something nice. Its the same thing as being at home watching the game with friends, something natural. After that its just important to try and find the balance between your heart and the reality. So, one of our former players with passion for the game who likes to analyse. RG: Would you have difficulty being balanced about Chelsea? JM: You know, I think you need to do that kind of job with a bit of balance, if not, you become the same level as those that we dont like. But I think its normal because even as a manager sometimes you have to be honest. After Man City I said the best team won. I was not going around for half an hour saying we didnt deserve to lose. Even as a manager I try to be honest. We didnt deserve to lose, we didnt play well, this match the referee was not good, but was not because of the referee that we lost the game. This match the referee had a real influence in the result... RG: How important was London in your decision to return? JM: Not London, my family. I dont see things in this perspective. So we try to be together the maximum we can. If, in a few years time, they have their own lives, it might be different, but the maximum of the time we need to be together. So if the kids still need us to be together we are together. So London is the kind of city that can give us that opportunity, because as a club and in football it has the dimension I want, it has conditions for my kids to study, for my wife to enjoy her very calm and reduced social life. So London is fantastic, but it was not about London, more about Chelsea and family; London comes second to it. RG: You made some very accurate predictions when you first came to Chelsea. Are you prepared to make any now for the next few years? JM: My prediction is that we win the next match, because this is always my prediction. I never go to a match without that feeling. RG: What is the bond you have with the fans at Stamford Bridge? JM: They are loyal, not the kind of crazy, noisy supporter. They are loyal to managers. When I come to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea v Monaco, and there were already lots of rumours that I would be next Chelsea manager, I was walking in front of the Chelsea hotel, going to the stand to get my ticket, and two people came to me and were telling me, not in an aggressive way, We dont want you here, we love Ranieri. And my assistant said to me, Weve got big problems. I said, No, the fans are good, they support their manager and probably one day it will happen the same with us. They are loyal with their manager. I think it must be an extreme situation of bad results and bad feelings, no empathy, to have different situations. We also have lots of examples of players not performing and players who have difficulty to adapt. I remember Mateja Kezman, who scored his first goal in December here against Newcastle from a penalty. The result was already decided, 3- or 4-0, and he scores his first league goal and Stamford Bridge celebrated like it was the Champions League final! They always support the guy. He was not scoring goals, having a hard time to adapt to English football, but he was always fighting like an animal and the people appreciate that kind of situation. They support the manager, support the players, they are very loyal. I think they have a big pride in their club a big, big pride. Especially in big matches they have a quiet profile, but what is in their heart I dont think is different to other noisy places, I just think its a different profile. Away support is completely different. Away we always feel a different profile, but to be fair it is not a problem for me the Stamford Bridge atmosphere, because I know they love us.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 18:08:23 +0000
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