José Mourinho called himself “the biggest one” as he reflected on his record-breaking Chelsea history before his latest Stamford Bridge return. The self-styled “special one” is back with Benfica for Tuesday night’s Champions League tie and he repeated another famous old line of his to set the scene.
Mourinho anticipates no hostility from Chelsea’s supporters as he seeks to ignite his Benfica tenure, having only joined them 11 days ago after his sacking by Fenerbahce at the end of August.
It has not always been the case when he has gone back to Stamford Bridge, with the nadir coming when he was barracked as the visiting Manchester United manager during an FA Cup defeat in March 2017. Mourinho, who won three Premier League titles for Chelsea across two spells, made the point back then that until another manager won four at the club, then “Judas is No 1”.
“Chelsea is a winning machine that had in the past two or three years a moment without trophies,” Mourinho said on Monday night, back at the stadium where he gave his original ‘special one’ press conference.
“But Chelsea won something before my time and then we start winning and then my team kept winning and then a transformation of new teams, new coaches, more trophies, European trophies, the biggest one and the Champions League. So Chelsea is a winning machine. I am the biggest one until someone wins four.”
Mourinho has been back to Stamford Bridge with Inter, United and Tottenham; his lone victory in seven attempts came with Inter in 2009-10 en route to winning the Champions League. There was warmth from him as he held court in the stadium’s Drake Suite, which is adorned with giant framed photographs of him celebrating each of his three Premier League titles.
José Mourinho said the fracas after a late Chelsea equaliser against his Manchester United side in October 2018 has been misinterpreted. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Mourinho’s family home remains close by in south-west London and he said that his son came every weekend to the ground. He also talked about how the club would be “my Chelsea before the game and my Chelsea after,” although – by dint of the terms of engagement – he stressed it would be “my Benfica” during it.
“I’ve already played here with Tottenham, Man United and Inter Milan,” Mourinho said.
“In 90 minutes, I didn’t think where I was or with who I was playing. So I say: ‘I am not a blue any more … I am [Benfica] red now.’ And I want to win.
“But of course, I will always be a blue. I am part of their history and they are part of my history. I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me to become a bigger José. When I say I am not a blue I hope everybody understands me – I am speaking about the job that I have to do.”
“But in relation to these pictures [in the Drake suite] … there are not many clubs that do this. In many, many clubs it looks like there is a fear of what happened in the past and there is continuous transformation of pictures – sometimes it looks like they want to delete people that made history in the clubs. I think this shows that Chelsea is really a big club because big clubs are also about principles.”
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Mourinho brushed off any previous acrimony at Stamford Bridge, recalling one episode that he claimed was misinterpreted. It came in October 2018 when his United team conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to the Chelsea of Maurizio Sarri.
“When something happened, it was that one member of the Chelsea dugout insulted me,” Mourinho said, meaning Sarri’s coach, Marco Ianni. “I reacted and people thought I was reacting to the Chelsea goal because they scored in the last minute. It was not the case.
“The coach was Sarri and he was absolutely top in the way he reacted to his assistant. Also, Chelsea was top in the way they dealt with it. And I was also top because Chelsea wanted to sack the guy and I told them no. Not because of something that happened in a football match. Leave the man in peace and on the bench. Everybody can do shit things.
“I don’t think Chelsea fans boo me [on Tuesday night]. At least on the street, they are the ones that disturb me all the time – for pictures and autographs.”
