Jose Mourinho insists he will receive a warm welcome from Chelsea fans when he returns to Stamford Bridge with Benfica on Tuesday for a Champions League group stage clash that has quickly turned into a trip down memory lane.
The 62-year-old, who famously announced his arrival in the Premier League by labelling himself a “special one”, led Chelsea to three English titles, three League Cups and one FA Cup across two spells that cemented his place in the club’s history.
Backed by then-owner Roman Abramovich, Mourinho transformed Chelsea from underachievers into serial winners.
But success did not shield him from criticism. When he returned to Stamford Bridge as manager of Manchester United and later Tottenham, Chelsea fans jeered him and chanted “you’re not special anymore.”
Now in charge of Benfica after a recent sacking by Turkish club Fenerbahce, Mourinho opened his pre-match press conference at Stamford Bridge by saying he was “not a blue anymore.”
Yet, conscious of the potential reaction from fans, he quickly backtracked, reaffirming his bond with the club.
“Of course I will always be a Blue. I am part of their history and they are part of mine. I helped them become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me become a bigger Jose,” he told reporters.
“It was a happy marriage. It was a fantastic decision I made. The reason I came the second time is of course I was so happy the first time. When I say I am not a blue I am talking about the job I have to do tomorrow. I don’t think Chelsea fans will boo. At least on the street Chelsea fans are the ones that disturb me for autographs and pictures.”
Chelsea’s gesture of hanging photos of Mourinho celebrating some of his greatest moments at the club inside the Ted Drake Suite was not lost on him.
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“There are not many clubs that do this. In many clubs it looks like there is a fear of what happened in the past. Sometimes it looks like they want to delete people who made history. It shows Chelsea is really a big club,” he said.
Mourinho, who still has a family home near Stamford Bridge, refrained from criticising current Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca despite mounting pressure following successive defeats to Manchester United and Brighton.
Maresca, however, guided Chelsea to Champions League qualification and won the UEFA Conference League last season.
“There was a sad period where even me from the outside, I was putting some question marks. It looked like Chelsea lost their identity but what happened in the last season has put things back on track,” Mourinho said.
Still, the Portuguese could not resist highlighting his own achievements. Asked if he remains Chelsea’s greatest manager, Mourinho replied: “I am the biggest one until someone wins four (titles). Chelsea won something before my time. Then they stopped winning, and then my team kept winning.”
And with a trademark sting, he downplayed Maresca’s recent silverware: “The Conference League is an easy competition for a big club to win. I did it with Roma. Champions League is much more difficult to win than the Club World Cup but Chelsea has the potential of course.”
It has been ten years since Mourinho last lifted a league title, but his charisma remains undimmed. After answering the final question, he embraced several familiar faces in the British media, posed for selfies, and wrapped a long-serving Chelsea media staffer in a warm hug.
“You know how I am. I love it,” he said with a smirk before leaving the stage.
— AFP