Month: April 2015

Mourinho was quick to play down an incident that took place in the closing stages of Chelsea’s defeat of Queen’s Park Rangers on Sunday. After Cesc Fabregas scored the winner for the Blues, objects appeared to rain down on the Chelsea players from the stands.

Coins and plastic bottles seemed to be amongst the things hurled towards the Chelsea players, and Branislav Ivanovic held his neck in pain when a lighter struck him.

Mourinho, however, didn’t want to make too big a deal of it; saying after the match: “If, at the end of the game, someone threw a pound coin, put it in your pocket. If someone threw a chocolate, eat it. It is no problem. Everybody needs a pound”.

Though his response might have been slightly tongue in cheek, the Portuguese manager had some sympathy with the difficult job the referee had to control such a highly charged occasion. He said, “The game was correct in the pitch and correct in the stands. It is not easy in an emotional game.”

He was far more forgiving than the QPR manager Chris Ramsey, who came down hard on the perpetrators of the offence. He stated, “I don’t know what happened and I didn’t see it, but if that’s the case [that things were thrown] we don’t want those people back in the club”.

The win over their London rivals put Chelsea 7 points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand, meaning they are one step closer to another Premier League title. If they win their game in hand then they’ll be 10 points clear with 18 points left to play for. Another 3 victories from their remaining fixtures will be enough for Mourinho to win his third title with the West London club.

Mourinho must have been speaking through gritted teeth recently when he admitted he agreed with Arsene Wenger over the Arsenal manager’s claim that the Ballon d’Or is a waste of time.

Wenger and Mourinho have had numerous fallings-out during their time together in the Premier League, with the Frenchman famously getting physical when he pushed his Portuguese counterpart earlier this season when their teams faced each other at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho, meanwhile, is hardly an innocent party in the matter, having constantly got underneath Wenger’s skin by calling him a “specialist in failure” and “a voyeur”, amongst other things.

The Chelsea manager completely agrees with Wenger, though, when it comes to football’s most prestigious award for individuals. The Ballon d’Or, in its current incarnation, has been awarded to the best player in the world since 2010. National team managers and captains, as well as the press, vote on who they think should win the award.

Wenger and Mourinho agree that awarding the best player in the world a trophy detracts from the notion of the team; that football as a concept is more important than any one player.

“For me”, said Mourinho, “football is collective. The individual is welcome if you want to make our group better. But you have to work for us”.

He went on to add, “When the top player arrives, the team is already there. It’s not him who comes to discover the team, like Columbus discovering America. No, no, you are coming now to help us be better”.

The Portuguese manager’s comments are enlightening, given that some feel he is the ultimate example of a manager who depends on superstars. Real Madrid have long been known for their Galácticos – world-famous, expensive players brought in with the specific aim of winning trophies. Having spent £225 million before Mourinho’s arrival, there as manager he went on to spend a further £82 million. His singings included Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Angel Di Maria. All of those are undoubtedly individual stars in their own right.

But others would argue that Mourinho is the master of getting the most out of his team, with players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba willing to run through the proverbial brick wall if he asked them to.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, Jose Mourinho doesn’t often agree with Arsene Wenger, so it’s safe to presume he feels strongly about the lack of importance of the Ballon d’Or.

Jose Mourinho has offered an opinion on the contract situation of Raheem Sterling at Liverpool by saying that “every player has his price”.

The 20-year-old Liverpool forward has come on to Chelsea’s radar since he reportedly rejected a £100,000 a week offer from the Merseyside club. Whilst a host of clubs appear to be monitoring the youngster, Chelsea might consider themselves slight favourites for his signature should he decide to leave Liverpool.

Sterling was born in Jamaica but moved to London when he was 5, meaning that a return to the capital might be a strong part of the English International’s thinking if and when he starts to look for a new club. That, combined with the fact that the Blues can still out-bid most other teams – especially their North London rivals Arsenal – should a bidding war ensue, means that Chelsea could be Sterling’s first choice destination if he left the Reds.

Jose Mourinho confessed that he has some sympathy with Brendan Rodgers over the contract wrangle, but also admitted “I don’t like players that don’t want to play for me and my club”.

The Portuguese manager compared Sterling’s situation at Liverpool with that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Mourinho was Inter Milan boss. The Swedish International told Mourinho and the Inter Milan hierarchy that he wanted to leave to go to Barcelona, so the deal was duly done.

On Sterling, Mourinho feels that “every player has a price. It doesn’t matter which player”. As an example Mourinho chose to talk about Eden Hazard who has recently signed a new contract at Chelsea. He said, “Do I want him to leave Chelsea? No. If he wants to leave, if he doesn’t want to work with me, if he doesn’t want to play for Chelsea, does Eden Hazard have a price? I think he has a price”.

Raheem Sterling has two years left on his current contract, which is worth £35,000 per week, and Mourinho admits he can understand why Brendan Rodgers and FSG aren’t keen to even consider letting the youngster go. “I also understand the philosophy of managers and clubs who want to keep the players at any price, who want just to say, ‘there is no price to sell – the player stays, whatever’. My philosophy is not better than that – it’s just different”, he said.

Whether Sterling stays at Liverpool for the foreseeable future or chooses to move on remains to be seen, but one thing seems certain: as long as things are up in the air Jose Mourinho and Chelsea will continue to monitor the situation in the hopes of swooping in should the chance present itself.

Jose Mourinho has confessed that he took a gamble when he brought Diego Costa on at half-time in the game against Stoke at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had led through an Eden Hazard penalty, but Charlie Adam scored a stunning goal from within his own half to equalise before the break. With the score 1-1 heading into the second half, the Chelsea manager decided to give Costa a run out in the hope of tipping the balance of the game into Chelsea’s favour.

Mourinho admitted earlier in the season that Costa couldn’t play more than 1 game in a week because of his previous hamstring problems. The injury flared up again when Chelsea played Hull just before the International break, and the Blues striker was forced to miss Spain’s games against Ukraine and the Netherlands.

With the game on a knife-edge, and Chelsea determined to keep pushing themselves on towards the title, Mourinho chose to gamble by replacing Oscar with Diego Costa, despite the forward being less than fully fit.

It was a gamble that backfired, with the Brazilian born Spanish international lasting just 10 minutes before limping off.

“If the result was 2-0 he wouldn’t play”, said Mourinho. “But I have to risk. My medical department had to risk… From all the scans two days ago, the muscle and image was completely clean”.

Having scored 19 goals since arriving from Atletico Madrid for £32 million in July last year, Costa has been an influential part of Chelsea’s title challenge. Now, with Costa likely to be out for at least 2 weeks, the pressure will fall on Loic Remy and Didier Drogba to help drag the Blues over the line for the title.

The striker will definitely miss games against QPR and Manchester United, with Chelsea still having to play Arsenal, Liverpool and a Leicester side that will scrapping with all their lives to avoid relegation.

Mourinho will be hoping that his squad has enough firepower left to keep themselves out of the grasp of Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, should Costa fail to come back from his injury with the same form he has displayed all season.