Jose Mourinho was ‘back in town’ with his Real Madrid side as they prepare to take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium tonight and, as he took centre stage before the nation’s sporting media, it was like he had never been away.
The English press were clearly excited by his return to the spotlight in our country and, typically, the Special One didn’t disappoint as he held court, gave his no-nonsense views and put a smile on the faces of those who have missed him.
Here are a few of his quips and quotes from yesterday’s entertaining press conference...and we take a look back at ten of his best comments/outbursts from yesteryear. Come back soon Jose!
YESTERDAY’S HIGHLIGHT’S FROM JOSE’S PRESS CONFERENCE...
"Last season City were out in the group phase. I think this season they will be out again. I think they can win on Wednesday, of course, and I think they can win in Dortmund, but eight points is not enough. I think they’re out for a second successive time."
"I always said how much I loved my time here and I always like to be back. I know when you play in England you have difficult matches, difficult opponents, difficult atmosphere, because the crowd is always very strong behind the team, but I like that."
"The beauty of my experience is that I had the chance to leave my country and do the lap of other countries and to get the best and the worse of this experiences to make me a better manager."
TOP TEN JOSE QUOTES OF THE PAST
1. "There are only two ways for me to leave Chelsea. One way is in June 2010 when I finish my contract and if the club doesn’t give me a new one. It is the end of my contract and I am out. The second way is for Chelsea to sack me. The way of the manager leaving the club by deciding to walk away, no chance! I will never do this to Chelsea supporters."
2. "We are on top at the moment but not because of the club’s financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work."
3. "I am very happy because the club is beating records with the sales of new shirts. I don’t sell shirts but there a relation between shirt sales and the performance of the team. If we perform well they sell more shirts."
4. "If Roman Abramovich helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt!"
5. "I am not concerned about how Chelsea are viewed morally. What does concern me is that we are treated in a different way to other clubs. Some clubs are treated as devils, some are treated as angels. I don’t think we are so ugly that we should be seen as the devil and I don’t think Arsene Wenger and David Dein are so beautiful that they should be viewed as angels."
6. "It is like having a blanket that is too small for the bed. You pull the blanket up to keep your chest warm and your feet stick out. I cannot buy a bigger blanket because the supermarket is closed. But I am content because the blanket is cashmere. It is no ordinary blanket."
7. "Young players are a little bit like melons. Only when you open and taste the melon are you 100 per cent sure that the melon is good. Sometimes you have beautiful melons but they don’t taste very good and some other melons are a bit ugly and when you open them, the taste is fantastic."
8. "They have to enjoy playing for me and Chelsea but they don’t have to be in love with me."
9. "It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs – no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem."
10. "This is nothing against Sir Alex whatsoever. After the game on Wednesday we were together in my office and we spoke and drank wine. Unfortunately it was a very bad bottle of wine and he was complaining, so when we go to Old Trafford for the second leg, on my birthday, I will take a beautiful bottle of Portuguese wine."
Source: DSG
