Mourinho clashed with Roman and broke up Chelsea family, says Makelele
25 May 2009 - 15:16:55
Claude Makelele has branded Jose Mourinho a calculating and viscious coach who tried to claim all the credit for Chelsea's success.
The France midfielder reveals how the relationship soured between Mourinho and Stamford Bridge owner Roman Abramovich before the self-styled 'Special One' left the club 20 months ago.
And Makelele says the close bond between the players and their boss was broken during the Portuguese coach's three years in charge.
'For two years at Chelsea we lived as a group of friends, dining together, getting drunk together, going to training together and winning matches together,' Makelele writes in his autobiography Tout Simplement.
'Between 2004 and 2006 the solidarity in the Chelsea camp was amazing. Mourinho then broke all that when he banned key elements to make way for certain players who were treated as "stars".
'Very early on in the 2006/07 season, Mourinho took a step back from his players. In that one day, the brotherhood spirit that had united us was harmed.
'Then he had a bust-up with (club owner Roman) Abramovich. The chairman asked the players to express themselves more freely on the pitch, but Mourinho stubbornly refused to change his methods.
'A relationship at the top of the club was broken and the players began to feel it. During that third complete season under his control, I was stunned to see how Mourinho forgot the value of his players and claimed all the credit for for everything.
'To him, individuals didn't make the team work well, his methods did. At the end Mourinho gave the impression that he felt threatened as soon as a player was in the spotlight more than him.'
Makelele, 36, is now at Paris Saint-Germain after spending five years at Stamford Bridge.
He claims to still respect Mourinho and admires his coaching abilities but claims the current Inter Milan boss can also have a negative effect on his players.
'He's someone I respect, but who also made me suffer a great deal,' the former France midfielder told Le Parisien. 'But he is a winner.
'He knows football, he knows how to use players, how to motivate them, but also how to put them down. He's someone who's very calculating, vicious, ambitious.'
