Jose Mourinho will shove all sentimentality aside on Tuesday night with Benfica’s new manager telling Chelsea on the eve of their European showdown: ‘I’m not a blue anymore. I’m red now. And I want to win.’
Mourinho is facing his former club in the Champions League and met the media in Stamford Bridge’s Drake Suite, where pictures of the 62-year-old Portuguese with his three Premier League trophies proudly hang on the walls.
While Mourinho spoke lovingly of his two trophy-laden spells with the Blues, he said that affection will be suspended for 90 minutes when he is in the Benfica dugout.
‘I am feeling home,’ Mourinho said. ‘I already played here with Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Inter Milan. I didn’t think where I was or with who I was playing with. Like I say: I’m not a blue anymore. I’m red now. And I want to win.’
Clarifying that comment, Mourinho continued: ‘Of course, I will always be a blue. I am part of their history and they are part of my history. I helped them become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me become a bigger Jose.
‘When I say I am not a blue, I hope everybody understands that I am speaking about the job I have to do tomorrow.
Jose Mourinho urged he will shove sentimentality aside when his Benfica side take on Chelsea
The Portuguese boss, who won three Premier League titles with Chelsea, returns on Tuesday
Mourinho insisted that he is no longer a blue and ‘wants to win as a red’ at Stamford Bridge
‘These pictures (on the wall of 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 a continuous transformation of pictures.
‘Sometimes it looks like they want to delete people that made history within the club. This shows Chelsea are a big club.’
Mourinho congratulated his old side for winning the Club World Cup in the United States, though reminded them that they are facing Benfica in a much more important competition. However, he believes Enzo Maresca’s side stand every chance of being crowned champions of Europe.
‘The Champions League is much more difficult to win than the Club World Cup, of course it is,’ he said. ‘Chelsea has the potential to do it (to win the Champions League). I don’t see any reason to say no, that Chelsea can’t do it.
‘Chelsea is a winning machine that had in the past two or three years, a moment without trophies. But Chelsea won something before my time and then we started 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.’
On how his old club now operate under their BlueCo ownership, Mourinho added: ‘Honestly, I don’t know the model, I never studied their model.
‘There was a set period where myself, from the outside, was putting some question marks (on it) because it looked like Chelsea had lost their identity as a club.
‘But what happened in the last season got things back on track. They gave trust to Enzo and gave his ideas. He’s fitted in well with the philosophy of the club.
‘The Conference League is made for a big club to win it. I did it with Roma. It’s quite an easy competition to win with a big club.
Chelsea’s legendary former manager heaped praise on Enzo Maresca for the job he is doing
The Blues will be eager to bounce back against Benfica after losing to Brighton at the weekend
‘And then the Club World Cup, I always say the Champions League is much more important, but the (FIFA gold) badge means a lot. It’s the first time a club has won (the expanded) Club World Cup.
‘Congratulations to them. ‘I think that gives them a base of trust and a base of confidence. I feel it at the supporters’ level. I feel it. I live five minutes from here and my son comes to the stadium every weekend.
‘It was a period of disappointment. It was a period of doubt. But in this moment, it’s a period of happiness and trust, so Chelsea is back on track.’
Unsure whether he will receive a warm welcome from his former fans, given he managed Tottenham and Manchester United, Mourinho also reminded Blues supporters that he delivered them three Premier League titles. ‘I’m the biggest one until someone wins four,’ he said.
There was also the odd classic Mourinho retort amid the press conference. When asked on the 74 charges handed to Chelsea, some of which cover his time in charge of the club, he responded by bringing up Manchester City’s charge sheet as he asked: ‘Not Man City?’
