Elliott Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Players share their memories of Jose Mourinho A good read: THE FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE By Frank Lampard WITHIN a few weeks of entering our lives Mourinho had taken us from being a talented group with the potential to win major honours to a team that would settle for nothing less. I wasn’t surprised. From the moment I saw him handle the media on his first day at Chelsea I knew there was something that set him apart from everyone else. That opinion was clearly not shared by the non-Chelsea lads at the England team hotel. I headed for the dining room and Mourinho’s appearance on telly was the talk of the tables. His swaggering style had certainly made an impression and I learnt immediately that I had a manager who grabbed people’s attention. “See your new gaffer on the telly?†I was asked a few times by some of the players. It was then followed by: “Who the f*** does he think he is?†From Totally Frank by Frank Lampard, HarperSport. THE RETURN TO PORTO By Benni McCarthy (who scored for Porto as they beat Mourinho’s Chelsea 2-1 in December 2004) WHEN he came back you could see the emotion on his face and in his eyes. The majority of the stadium gave him an amazing welcome. And the players as well. We appreciated what he had done and how he helped every single player in that team to make a name for himself. It was just great, the atmosphere and vibe of him coming back. THE FEUD WITH BARCELONA By Samuel Eto’o FRANK RIJKAARD is the most relaxed guy in the world. In the Camp Nou game in 2005, he didn’t get ruffled, even with everything that was said, but in the Stamford Bridge leg he lost his cool, and not because of the defeat so much as the insults. And the men delivering them, the two provokers were Jose Mourinho and his second in command, Baltemar Brito. The argy-bargy at the end of that tie was terrible and they were at the heart of it. I genuinely don’t know what would have happened if at the end [Chelsea won 5-4 on aggregate] it had been Chelsea who had been knocked out of the Champions League that night. I reckon we would not have got out of there alive. Mourinho and Brito, with their comments and gestures, finally managed to make even Rijkaard very angry. Brito tried to rough him up, too. When I saw that, I shot like an arrow to where Frank was to defend him. ‘Come, mister,’ I told him. ‘It’s over. We’ll come back here next year and teach them a lesson. We know what they are like now.’ In the tunnel I saw Mourinho coming up behind us and he tried to pat me on the back. I turned my back away from him, looked him in the eyes and said, ‘Mister, I know you are a great coach and a great man, but the truth is you’re a s***.’ He was dumbstruck, didn’t know what to say, looked at the ground and went quickly into their dressing room. Rijkaard saw what had happened and said to me, ‘Now it is over. Let’s get into the dressing room.’ The next year we did go back and beat them there. From Samuel Eto’o, Raza de Campeon, Coleccion Sport HIDING IN THE KIT BOX By Nuno Morais (who saw him do it) IT WAS very different to go into the dressing room and see Jose hiding in the skip that night. That’s the kind of coach he is. He will go to any length to make sure his team wins. THROWING HIS MEDAL INTO THE CROWD By Sebastian Kayll (who caught it) AS THE team were doing their lap of honour, Jose made his way over to the Matthew Harding stand. First he took off his blazer and threw that into the crowd but only a couple of rows back. I sit about 12 rows from the pitch so I wasn’t expecting anything. My seat is an aisle one with a handy step up beside it, which is normally great during the match, and I was up there watching the celebrations, which gave me an immediate advantage. When he tossed the medal into the stand, I just managed to cling on to it by the ribbon. By this stage all the stewards had left the stands but I’ve known most of the guys around me for quite a while so there wasn’t much of a bunfight. I showed it off for a while and then hid it in my pocket. I sold it for £21,600 in November 2008. I hated having to do so as it was such an incredible memento, but I run my own business and me and my business partner needed to refinance. I still dream of buying it back one day but I’ll be there on Tuesday in the same seat to welcome Jose home.’ WHEN YOU FALL OUT WITH JOSE By Ricardo Carvalho I HAD a small problem with Jose. He’d say, ‘Why, during training, you are s***, you are sleeping? Ba, ba, ba. You arrive in the game and pow! Why you don’t train as you play?’ I say, ‘I enjoy much more when I play. For me, training . . .’ I improved a lot when I arrived in England but you know Jose had that idea from Porto. ‘Ah, you are sleeping.’ Even a small mistake. ‘During the game you never do that.’ I had a meeting with him after the first year. I said to him, ‘Here the football is physical and I can’t enjoy, so for me I would prefer to go.’ He took it a little bit too serious and the reaction was, ‘Okay, if you want to, go.’ But I knew he’d said to the club, ‘No, I don’t want to let him go.’ Because I didn’t like that, I reacted and said I was disappointed with him. He said one thing to me and for the others he said no chance. I didn’t play for two or three weeks, but then he called a meeting to sort things out and said, ‘I apologise. You spoke, you shouldn’t have spoken, but I reacted worse than I should. But now if you deserve to play you will.’ Two weeks later I started to play and I started to enjoy the games more here. I got better so he was happier with me. BUYING PLAYERS By Roman Abramovich WE [Mourinho and I] are not social friends but we have a pretty warm relationship. Generally speaking, I treat him with great respect and not only because of his football achievements. I’m not involved in team selection. I cannot say I’m completely not involved in buying players but my role would be significantly lower than that of the manager’s. You cannot compare them. To give an example, this would be an impossible situation when a manager does not want a player to be bought and I try to impose ideas. It would not work. That applies to any player, Andriy Shevchenko included. HE ALWAYS KNEW WHAT THE OPPOSITION WOULD DO (1) By Steve Clarke AS A manager, he was head and shoulders above any other I’d worked with. His attention to detail was extraordinary. His preparation for training and matches was on another level to what I’d ever seen. He made training different every day, different drills, different practices. He’d never let players go through the motions. And he’d always tell you what the opposition would do. As a manager he was proactive in matches. He didn’t wait for something to happen and then react to it. He’d influence games. There were one or two things he did I wouldn’t be sure about at the time, so you’d ask him after the game why he did it and he’d always convince you about his reasoning behind it. HE ALWAYS KNEW WHAT THE OPPOSITION WOULD DO (2) By Portugal midfielder Tiago MOURINHO is the best coach I’ve ever worked under. He sees football in a different way. He handles every detail. With him I went on to the pitch with the feeling that I’d known all of my opponents for many years. He even knew their “tellsâ€. That is why he wins. THE END IS NIGH By Claude Makelele FOR TWO years we lived like a tight group of friends who eat, drink and practise all together. The unity we had between 2004 and 2006 was fantastic. But then Mourinho lost that unity when certain members of the group fell out of favour and new stars arrived. I’m sure he didn’t want all those stars, but if that was the case, he himself should have left then. He grew distant from the players quite soon into 2006-07. Suddenly, there were divisions in the camp. Then he took on Abramovich, who wanted to see the players expressing themselves more. Mourinho was stubborn and wouldn’t change. Something had cracked, and the players felt it badly. It troubled me that Mourinho wanted to take all the limelight himself, and forgot about the players. He thought it was his work, not ours that brought success. It really looked as if he resented it when a player took him out of the spotlight. From Simplement Tout by Claude Makelele, Editions Prologations SAYING FAREWELL By Didier Drogba HE CAME to Cobham, the training centre, the next day. It was like being struck. He told us, in a few simple words and gestures, he had been let go. We saw him holding back his sadness. He left as he had arrived: strong, self-confident. It was quick — five minutes and that was it. He finished by embracing all the players. Well, almost ... ‘I wish you and all our families good luck and I thank you. Even those of you who betrayed me!’ We knew it was coming but we didn’t understand why. I couldn’t help shedding tears when I hugged him goodbye. It was all too much. He had cleared his desk very quickly. Just bizarre. It was very moving. There were several people on his staff who we were close to. It was hard to look certain people in the eye without wanting to flare up. Still, Mourinho let his guard down for a second. ‘I want you to know that I’m very happy to be leaving here.’ What did he mean? I was scared of going off on one — some of my reactions then didn’t seem appropriate or professional. I felt like an orphan. From Didier Drogba: The Autobiography, Aurum Press
ivorycoast Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Who betrayed him? And Makelele seems to be talking about the moment Shevchenko arrived?
Elliott Posted March 15, 2010 Author Posted March 15, 2010 I'm not sure.. I think he may have been referring to Sheva as betraying him, as the impression given was that he and Roman were very 'chummy'. Maka was almost certainly referring to the arrival of Sheva and Ballack. Interesting to read Eto'o's comments... and the part about Jose hiding in the bin.
Alex Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Have been looking through his old interviews, some absolute great stuff from him. Never really bothered me that he took the limelight but then I can completely understand why the players would.
Backbiter Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Who betrayed him?And Makelele seems to be talking about the moment Shevchenko arrived? Maka accused JT of betraying him in his book. Jose publicly denied it. Duncan Castles in the Observer also said it was JT who got him sacked (see the 'Turncoat Terry' article), but the Observer had to issue a formal retraction. Eto'o's piece is the usual garbage from a complete jerk. He omitted to mention how he invented allegations of racism against our steward(s) to bring us into disrepute. So Barca wouldn't have got out alive if we'd lost? That's right, opposition teams have a history of being bumped off after they win at the Bridge. What a tosser.
Scott Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Porto * Portuguese Liga (2): 2002–03, 2003–04 * Portuguese Cup (1): 2002–03 * Portuguese SuperCup (1): 2003 * UEFA Cup (1): 2002–03 * UEFA Champions League (1): 2003–04 Chelsea * FA Premier League (2): 2004–05, 2005–06 * FA Cup (1): 2006–07 * League Cup (2): 2004–05, 2006–07 * FA Community Shield (1): 2005 Internazionale * Serie A (1): 2008–09 * Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2008 * UEFA Manager of the Year (1): 2003 * UEFA Team of the Year Coach of the Year (3): 2003, 2004, 2005 * Onze d'Or European Coach (1): 2005 * IFFHS World Manager of the Year (2): 2004, 2005 * World Soccer Magazine Coach of the Year (2): 2004, 2005 * BBC Sports Personality of Year Coach Award (1): 2005 * FA Premier League Manager of the Year (2): 2004–05, 2005–06 * FA Premier League Manager of the Month (3): November 2004, January 2005, March 2007 * Oscar del calcio Manager of the Year (1): 2009
jcm28 Posted March 15, 2010 Posted March 15, 2010 Porto * Portuguese Liga (2): 2002–03, 2003–04 * Portuguese Cup (1): 2002–03 * Portuguese SuperCup (1): 2003 * UEFA Cup (1): 2002–03 * UEFA Champions League (1): 2003–04 Chelsea * FA Premier League (2): 2004–05, 2005–06 * FA Cup (1): 2006–07 * League Cup (2): 2004–05, 2006–07 * FA Community Shield (1): 2005 Internazionale * Serie A (1): 2008–09 * Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2008 * UEFA Manager of the Year (1): 2003 * UEFA Team of the Year Coach of the Year (3): 2003, 2004, 2005 * Onze d'Or European Coach (1): 2005 * IFFHS World Manager of the Year (2): 2004, 2005 * World Soccer Magazine Coach of the Year (2): 2004, 2005 * BBC Sports Personality of Year Coach Award (1): 2005 * FA Premier League Manager of the Year (2): 2004–05, 2005–06 * FA Premier League Manager of the Month (3): November 2004, January 2005, March 2007 * Oscar del calcio Manager of the Year (1): 2009 :) ::clap2::
L Essien Posted March 18, 2010 Posted March 18, 2010 Very interesting, The turncoat Terry, so more or less he was responsible for the sack of jose mourinho. This is very interesting, well some things have to change at the club, starting from our captain, the club is not his club, he needs to be told.He doesnt pu a penny in the club. He is a great defender but as a person sometimes, i think he is.., well not polite, not humble and so on. :Whistle:
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