'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was interviewed by former Manchester United defender Gary Neville as he spoke on several matters including his wish to continue at Chelsea, the relationship he maintains with Eden Hazard, the circus situation they were in against potential Premier League champions Liverpool last season and more.
Neville caught up with the Portuguese in his office at the club’s Cobham training ground this week. Here are some of the highlights from the Telegraph columnist and the Special One’s conversation.
On Chelsea’s inspired wins against Liverpool that ruined Anfield’s title hopes
Chelsea had no intention, he says, of playing “the clown” at somebody else’s party.
“I felt during part of last season that the country wanted Liverpool to be champion,” he starts out. “The media, the press: a lot was to put Liverpool there. Nobody was saying they were in a privileged situation because they didn’t play Champions League. Nobody was speaking about a lot, a lot of decisions that helped them win important and crucial points. And I felt that day was a day that was ready for their celebration.
“I used the word with my players. I said – we are going to be the clowns, they want us to be the clowns in the circus. The circus is here. Liverpool are to be champions.”
Neville asked, “You weren’t having that, were you?” to which Mourinho replied with a straight no.
Mourinho’s boys had a Champions League semi-final fixture to play against Atletico Madrid during the weekend which is why the Portuguese made a request to move the game to a day earlier. However, Liverpool had an issue with that and refused and Neville asked if that had inspired his team to bring down the Reds.
“I knew the process that hangs with the fact that we didn’t play the day before,” he says. “Because we wanted to play the day before – the Saturday, because we played the Champions League semi-final on the Wednesday. And I know exactly step by step. Because we went deep on it. We couldn’t accept it. The title was lost for us, and we didn’t understand how an English team that is representing England in the semi-final [didn’t] have the right to play on the Saturday.
“We went deep. It was a Sky decision? We went to Sky. When people were saying it’s a Premier League decision we went to the Premier League. When people were saying it was a Liverpool issue we went also to smell the situation. And the people who were involved in that decision – they were wrong.
On his new signings and how his team has developed from last year
“We had certain limitations in the team in terms of tactical qualities, technical qualities, and we were aware of that. My style of leadership is not a style. I try to have a leadership that is adapted to the reality. And last year I was feeling that they were not ready for what I call a pressure leadership – or confrontational leadership. The team as a team was mentally – and even tactically – unstable.
“We couldn’t cope with certain moments of the game. My feeling is that obviously this season we’re going to lose matches, but I don’t think we are going to lose matches because we couldn’t cope with a certain moment, or a specific [part] of the game.
So my team was unstable. This season we improve footballistically, with Diego and Fabregas, no doubt. When we analyse in tactical and technical terms, they represent the kind of player we need, the kind of second midfield player, the quality of striker. We were lucky to have in the market available for us exactly the style of player we need. But what people maybe don’t realise is that the maturity of our team, the personality of our team, changed a lot.”
Chelsea will be better than Manchester City in five years
“You tell me. If we keep this team, and they keep that team: in five years time, who is going to be better?
“I say immediately – us, because in five years I’m going to have Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Azpilicueta, Zouma, in the best moment of their careers, and the fantastic players I have now, at 28, 29. A fantastic team with lots of solutions.”
On his relationship with Eden Hazard
“I don’t know if you agree with me, but the profile of the ‘man player’ you found in football 15 years ago is different to the majority of the players you found at the end of your career. They are different kids. I think Eden is out of context at this moment. Why? Because he’s a fantastic kid. He is humble, very humble. Very nice. Very polite. Selfish – zero. Egocentric – zero. He is fantastic.
“I had a conversation with his father. His father told me something that I loved. I don’t think it’s a problem to tell you. He said – ‘I have a wonderful son. He is a wonderful father. He is a wonderful husband. I want him to change, because I want him to be a wonderful player. But I don’t want him to change a lot. I don’t want him to become – and he used the name of two or three players. I just want him to be the same husband, the same father, the same son, with a little but more tenacity, mental aggression, ambition, personal ego. A little bit more. And you are the guy to give it to him.’
“We can never transform these fantastic players and men into a competitive animal, a competitive machine. Not even his father wants [that]. We have just to bring him to a different level, working hard in training, which he’s doing.”
Is Hazard responding to that message?
“Yes, yes, yes. He’s never afraid to play and take responsibility. But it’s not about that. It’s about him saying – today, I have to be decisive. What he says in that press interview, when he says ‘I’m not one of the five top players in the world’ – he can be, but he cannot be in a match where he doesn’t do something in the 90 minutes that makes him decisive.
“The week before against Arsenal, I was on him every day – be decisive. Don’t be happy with doing nice things. Don’t be happy being up and down in the game. You have to do something in the game that wins the game for us. And he did. This is the point with Eden. The talent is amazing, and the human side of him – especially in the modern days, because I work with top players for 30 years – he is not from these times. He’s from the old times.”
