In-form Chelsea winger Florent Malouda insists Jose Mourinho's successful managerial tenure at the club is now just history as far as the players are concerned.
Malouda, one of the last to be signed by Mourinho before the coach was sacked in September 2007, is adamant that the squad, largely constructed by the 'Special One', do not care about the past. Inter Milan boss Mourinho will return to Stamford Bridge for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
But Malouda, who made two and scored one in Chelsea 4-1 Barclays Premier League demolition of West Ham on Saturday, declared: "We are not thinking about the history. We're trying to make history. What happened in the past, I would say, we don't care. We're just looking to win and go through on Tuesday evening. I hope it will be a great result for Chelsea and for the manager."
He added: "I would say that it's more important for the fans than for us. We, as players for Chelsea, just want to beat Inter. As he's the Inter coach, we want to beat him too. That's the main thing.
"It'll be an emotional game for him but, as for us, you could see in the first game it was not disturbing for the players he signed here for Chelsea.
"I just hope that Carlo will help me win my first Champions League."
Inter lead 2-1 from the opening leg in the San Siro and a 1-0 win for Carlo Ancelotti's side would be enough to see them through to the quarter-finals.
But Malouda does not believe the goal has to come early.
"I'm not really sure that we need an early goal," he added. "We've scored the away goal so we need one to go through, and I think we must have patience.
"We won't go and rush at them to score an early goal. We have to be clever in this game and score, I hope, more than one goal."
Source: PA
