Mourinho: Chelsea a big club that wants to be even bigger

Jose Mourinho has high expectations from Chelsea. (Getty Images)

Speaking at a conference near the team’s hotel just an hour after arriving in the sun-kissed city of Jakarta, Jose Mourinho was asked by a local journalist on why his team chose to play against Asian sides in the given conditions to which the former Portuguese footballer replied:

“Chelsea is big club that wants to be even bigger,” he responded, “and to be a big club you don’t just need to win trophies, you need much more than that and one of things we need is a big fanbase worldwide and one of the reasons we travel a lot this pre-season is for that objective.

“We must feed the passion we feel has built up around this club and we are here because we want Chelsea bigger and bigger and bigger.

Mourinho’s Chelsea is all fired up on arrival at Jakarta, Indonesia where the side will be taking on BNI Indonesia All-Stars on Thursday.

After winning the first two matches of their tour of Asia, Chelsea are looking forward to leaving the ‘Far East’ with a hundred percent win record. Following their imposing victory by 4-1 against a formidable Malaysia and defeating the Singha All-Star XI in Bangkok courtesy a penalty from Romelu Lukaku, the Blues will be facing BNI Indonesia on Thursday in the island nation’s capital.

“The strategy is always simple – we want to improve and to improve the players have to play seriously,” Mourinho explained. ‘This is the most important thing for our team and the other important thing is to respect the fans Chelsea have around the world.

“It will probably be a full stadium and the best way to respect the fans is to play well and make the people happy. I think the Indonesian coach and players have the same desire we have and to have a good match you need two good teams, so hopefully together with the other team we can give the fans what they want.”

Making good use of the given opportunity, local media further quizzed Mourinho on Manchester United manager David Moyes’ comments on many clubs not finalising their squads until late in the open transfer window.

Mourinho exclaimed: “It depends on the philosophy of each club but the sooner you have the players the better because you have time to work,” Mourinho said, “but yes, he [Moyes] is right because the market is open until 31^st August and many clubs wait for the last moment to make their decisions. These decisions affect a lot of clubs, so it looks like no club is safe that is keen to sell and it can steal the balance that a manager has when he is working with a team.”