O'Jogo's 2 hour Interview w/ Mourinho

[sportinglisbon1]

This is the first part of the interview;




O Jogo - You capitalized, at your first strike, success at Chelsea. You were thumping, winning the league for Chelsea, something that hadn't happened in Stamford Bridge for 50 years. You left the English football mad with surprise and now, on your second season, you're laying similar tracks. Do you admit being a revolutionary in England, given the fact that the British conservatism suffered shock waves with your arrival?

José Mourinho - I wouldn't go so far. I didn't revolutionise anything. I only put an end to a state of routine, of apparent normality, of bipolar domination between Manchester United and Arsenal, between Arséne Wenger and Alex Ferguson, almost accepted with bows. The almighty Londoners and Northeners won, won, won - in the last ten years there was a sporadic occasion of exceptional success with Blackburn Rovers. What happened was that we ended that domination.

O Jogo - There was, surely, a secret for ending with the reigning "status quo". Did it have anything to do with your methods, considered innovative?
José Mourinho - A little bit of everything happened. Abramovich had an important role in the new Chelsea, given his financial power, which enabled the club to change more rapidly than others normally do; now, Abramovich arrived 2 years before me - what I brought was a sporting bearing. Chelsea started it's change through Abramovich's acquisition; after that there were administrative and structural changes with Peter Kenyon's signing - when it comes to marketing and merchandising, be it at an administrative or at a financial level, he is the biggest expert in English football and one of the biggest worldwide - and only after them I came in, in the sporting area. One thing is to spend money on players without the existence
of a solid sporting project and another thing is to have a project and clear ideas about what is a team, a game system, and a work methodology. I think that the junction of Roman's economical power, the intelligence and administrative capacities of Peter and then my capabilities as a football coach, produced a trilogy capable of creating a great team which - in an unexpected fashion for some - conquered the English league.

O Jogo - I can't resist to a provocation that bases itself on the analysis you just made. FIFA's president, Joseph Blatter, considers Chelsea as a bad example for football, due to it's exaggerated financial injection in today's football. I take it you don't agree with this...

José Mourinho - Of course not! I believe in exactly the opposite. When football is, on an economical point of view, going through a bad phase in which in many countries the clubs are having financial problems, the arrival of someone willing to invest and to change it's heading isn't welcome? For me it's an anormality for Arsenal and Man United to share the glories and no one contest that. It's an absurd the hysteria around the arrival of a Russian with a Portuguese coach in a kingdom that was previsouly calmly dominated... and this when we only won 1 league - not 5 in 10. There are many critics that are absolutely unfounded. For example : in the last Arsenal-Chelsea, Chelsea played with 3 Englishmen in the starting eleven against 0 in Arsenal's starting eleven, and Mr. Blatter comes out whining about changes considering Chelsea the bad example. There are negative images that keep being sold... people forget that Chelsea made an absolutely absurd investment on a new youth academy - no other club in the world has invested so much in an academy, be it on a facilities, coaches, coaching formations or player's education and general conditions. What you cannot ask for is that Abramovich arrives at Chelsea in 2003, Peter in 2004, Mourinho in 2005 and that Chelsea in January 2006 has 20 English players, with 15 of them formed at their academy. You cannot ask for that! Deep down, much of what has been written against Chelsea is based on the fact that we broke the "establishment".
For many, it's unpleasant for a club with Chelsea's power to appear in English football.

O Jogo - The depth of the analysis you just made doesn't however avoid another one : the fact that José Mourinho is to English football some kind of elephant on a ceramics shop. Your dialectics, your way of being broke some conservatism and created some resistances...

José Mourinho - It's nothing premeditated! It's a natural form of things. I am like I am and I'm not willing to change. I'm the same in Portuguese football, in English football, if some day I go to Italian or Chinese football I'll be the same. I am myself! If for cultural reasons, or traditional reasons, I create friction it's because I integrate myself naturally and with tranquility in the new world. I'm not willing to change!

O Jogo - What is undeniable is the permanent controversy. Is it or is it not caused by your personality?

José Mourinho - The majority of the controversy is due to the current journalism philosophy in this country.

O Jogo - Aren't you responsible for most of those situations?

José Mourinho - I can't say I'm not responsible for some. I provoke some; there are some that are a consequence of my personality which
I'm not willing to change, but most of them are consequences of a journalism philosophy which I won't argue - I actually sometimes even have lots of fun with it... - but which is a way of being that prefers to give attention and explore a determined kind of subject instead of others, and that ends up having great responsibilty in this kind of situations.

O Jogo - Anyway : you've managed to put Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger discussing against referees, something that looked unthinkable in English football before your arrival.

José Mourinho - Sincerely: I talk much less about referees here than I ever did in Portugal. They are the ones that never ever talked about it, because they didn't have to! Before my arrival, I think Wenger had never lost against Chelsea for the league in 6 or 7 years - therefore you can imagine that during those years he never had the need to talk about referees in the games with Chelsea, because he always won. Ever since we came in he never won, so it's natural that he talks about referees now. Sincerely I really don't think I talk that much about referees in the first place, specially
comparing with what I did in Portugal. Here referees make mistakes like everywhere, but there is no suspicion. We believe in them; we know they are professionals, they live from football just like us, they're independent, and nominations don't show up in the sequence of some kind of pressure or influence. When you lost matches it's natural that refereeing mistakes are evoked - it's hard to keep quiet when the mistakes have direct influence on the score - but it's excellent the amount of respect we put when we talk about officials, and it is reciprocal. There is a very positive relationship between referees and managers.

[sportinglisbon1]

Part 2 of the interview (I skipped some irrelevant questions at least for you), there are real gems in here!

O Jogo - It may seem like heresy, but the question is imposed: In today's football, tactics are determinant, fundamental or are there aspects of the game that end up rivalling with tactics in terms of importance?

José Mourinho - Football is everything! Tactics are important, they are the true essence of collective sports. Whenever there are interactions between humans, tactics are fundamental. On the other hand, technique is the essence of the game. A player, if not complete, has to be at least sound technically. In the same way, some physical attributes are equaly important in a player. As for dumb players... I don't believe in them! It's difficult for me to work with players that aren't intelligent enough to understand what we want; the personality, the ability to concentrate, these are also relevant. These are all fundamental and almost undissociable aspects of a player. This is why we try to work in an integrated manner, breaking somewhat with the traditional categorized physical, technical and tactical work, trying to operationalize everything in an integrated manner. The game itself is all about that and it's wrong to work on it separately.

O Jogo - It's inevitable to "think football" with the Chelsea manager. Does it make sense, today, to talk about continental football and British football?


Jose Mourinho - The fact is that there are different cultures, but today there isn't, in the real sense of the word , what we would classify as continental football or British football, when we refer to the game itself, to it's tactical notions or technical abilities. That fragmentation doesn't exist anymore. What does exist is a completely different sporting culture. In one of the texts I wrote for "Dez" magazine I gave a blatant example : a player in Portugal, Spain or Italy, feigns and gets a penalty, he wins with that penalty... he's a very intelligent player, experienced, perspicacious, that understands the game. In England however, a player that manages to pull off a penalty in that way is a cheater! He's a cheater! He's a player that has problems surviving in the league. In Great Britain, football is clean! There's this honesty culture, of simply playing the game; there is no "gray football" culture.
In that aspect the British are world champions, by miles. Because, in fact, these sporting culture concepts are beautiful. When it comes to football itself, it's clear that there are some teams that still display a specific sporting culture, which reflects somewhat in the way their public behave - for example : here, for the public, a corner is a goal, and this type of reaction pushes the team's emotional levels.
I'll give a negative example from which I managed to build a different mentality in my team : last year, home against Bolton, we were playing a beautiful game, and when we scored the 2-0 (beautiful goal by Tiago) my team switched to playing like the public wanted them to play; they didn't manage to control themselves emotionally, they stopped thinking tactically, and started playing in function of the euphoria the public transmitted into the field. I told my assistant at the time : one of the two will happen : 4-0 or 2-2! And... 2-2!

O Jogo - So you are against euphoric football!
José Mourinho - I don't want euphoric football! I want thinking football, I want tactical football; now I also want to bring emotion into our game, always in a controlled manner. I want emotion in the stands, and I want it to pass into the field, but I want us to take it under our control and profit with it. In the recent game against Arsenal, we scored the second goal and, in the next play, Joe Cole shot against the post, there was a stop in the game and John Terry came in my direction and we said almost at the same time : "I don't want to win 5-0!" He went back into the field, and our team, which previously was pressing in depth, started pressing in width... and the game ended! 20 minutes from time it ended!

O Jogo - That kind of control is however very difficult to achieve. Because in the football business there is the temptation to potentiate, for profitability's sake, more euphoria? Or is it not?

José Mourinho - If anything, what I think is that they try to potentiate controversy. It's all about non-superiority. You can understand that one thing is for Chelsea to be 10 points ahead of Manchester United and another thing is to be 2 points ahead! The TV sells more, the press sells more, the audiences are bigger...

O Jogo - You're ruining the business with your superiority...

José Mourinho - During 10 years it was Manchester-Arsenal, Arsenal-Manchester and now we're in between them. Of course: now it's Chelsea to blame!

O Jogo - Chelsea is ruining the business!

José Mourinho - We're not ruining the business! We only do our job. And only now does anyone ever talk about it... not before, because Chelsea didn't win anything. But it's like that.... it's motivating!

O Jogo - Chelsea has been again, just like last year, predominant in the premiership, but there is a game philosophy that certainly looks different in relation to last season's. Is the 2005/2006 Chelsea more compact, less exuberant?

José Mourinho - We are already champions. At least in England, we won't make history the way we did last year, when we got our first league title in 50 years. This year's Chelsea has more potential and more solutions, than last year's.

O Jogo - Don't you have a less explosive football now?

José Mourinho - No. What we have is a more elaborate football, we stepped forward in qualitative terms. Last year we defended well and were agressive in the search for goal. This year we defend well, we still manage to be agressive in the transitions and in the search for goal, but we're more solid when controlling the game, we're more solid in possession. It was hard for me to get this in the first year, but the team had enough resources to achieve it's goals even without it. I concentrated my work on exactly those two aspects : to defend well, and to be agressive on the defense-attack transitions, adding the elaboration of a different football: we construct in a more elaborate and varied manner. We can dominate the game not because we know how to defend well, but because we have the ball and know what to do with it.

We are today a better team. My doubt , and my battle - so to speak - is that last year the motivational levels were high from the first to the last day, because it was a team that drank a few litres of ambition I gave them at the beginning, so that history could be written - and it was written. This year, we're champions; things sometimes look easy and what I've been noticing is that my team has always been better on those games that involve greater responsiblity, those games that bring up natural motivation. And on the other games, those home games in which last year we looked like we wanted to devour our opponents from the first minute, are this year games that we seem to believe that things will happen naturally, because we're stronger and play better.

O Jogo - Last year, with the exception of the manager and some players that you took with you, there were no champions at Chelsea. Now you're all champions. Is this the root for the motivational problems you talked about?

José Mourinho - Last year there was also some motivation that came from the outside - the doubt of the football world over our team. This year the way people talk about us is different; instead of stimulation , there are exaggerated doses of confidence coming from the oustide. Therefore, at this moment, in which I think my team is very solid and strong in the pitch, what we all have to achieve - and the victory at Arsenal was in that way important - is to find daily motivation.

O Jogo - Last season, while concentrated in various competitions, you said the premiership was priority. And now? Is the English title still the top objective or do you point your batteries to other competitions, like the Champions League?

José Mourinho - We have to always point our batteries to the leagues. In a league, you lose today, tie tomorrow, win later, but the best always win. In the Champions League, the UEFA Cup, in the group stage the mentality is exactly the same, that is, the best and most consistent pass, but on the knock-out stages you start getting a little bit random, in the penalty that is sanctioned or not, in the ball that goes in or hits the wood, in the team that has suspended or injured players...

O Jogo - Do you discard a win in the Champions League then?

José Mourinho - No, no. I don't discard anything! I believe that we can win it but I know that we can also be eliminated by any team at this stage of the competition - they're all good.

O Jogo - If you had won your group you wouldn't have to face Barcelona now, one of the most formidable teams...

José Mourinho - So?

O Jogo - Wouldn't it be better to get Barcelona at a later stage?

José Mourinho - Now or later... it's the same. Last year we were first in the group and still, we got Barcelona. This is the way draws are...

O Jogo - In the current relationship parameters, what differences are there in your contacts with Eriksson and Scolari?

José Mourinho - I have an every week relationship with Eriksson that intensifies itself when the national team's games are near. It's an open and no-nonsense relationship. If I tell Eriksson that John Terry is injured, he knows John Terry is injured and he goes to the national team so that they can see him but only as a pro-form, not because they think I'm lying.

O Jogo - Isn't it the same if it's about Paulo Ferreira or Ricardo Carvalho?

José Mourinho - I have no relationship with the Portuguese national team. Our relationship is purely institutional, without any kind of friction. We get faxes when players are called, we send the players in the scheduled dates, they return when they have to, we ask for permission if we want to sent a private jet to pick them up earlier... it's a relationship.

O Jogo - Does it make sense to be purely institutional?

José Mourinho - Each one works the way they want. Eriksson asked me if we were available for an open relationship and I told him yes; he asked me only once : "Do you mind that I go to the training center to talk with some of the international players?" I told him : "You don't have to ask for permission. You only have to inform when are you going to show up so that we can be ready to welcome you".

If Eriksson wants to come to the training center to talk with the players or to see a training session... he comes! There is a very objective relationship - and positive. There are other national teams in which the relations are the same as those we have with the Portuguese national team.

Fortunately we don't have any problems with national teams, but we do have privileged relationships with some of them - with Klinsmann and Artur Jorge [Cameroon] it's the same as with Eriksson.

O Jogo - The question is inevitable: knowing about your cold relations with Scolari, do you admit having provoked him at any time?

José Mourinho - I think so. When I was Vitor Baía's coach I wanted to defend him attacking his non-calls to the national team - and I don't regret doing it. In that sense sometimes I entered a space that was not mine.

O Jogo - Do you think Scolari is to blame then?

José Mourinho - No, no... Scolari, for example, never questioned publicly why doesn't Ricardo Carvalho play sometimes for Chelsea, considering him the best central defender in Chelsea as he does...Neither does he question, now that Paulo Ferreira hasn't been in the starting lineup so regularly, why does Gallas take the right back position sometimes... Scolari, in that aspect, is right. It was me that questioned Vítor [Baía] not being called to the national team.

O Jogo - So despite the cold relationship, do you think there will be, sooner or later, a better relationship between the two of you?

José Mourinho - I think that if I meet him in the streets tomorrow we will greet each other with no problem. In fact, in the real sense of the word, problem or lack of respect never existed between us. Inbetween anormality these end up being normal situations. There is no approach, there is no telephone contact or of any other kind, but maybe this is just the way Scolari works - with me and with others. Let's not go that way...

O Jogo - Who would you risk betting for world champion in 2006?

José Mourinho - I would bet in Brasil, like almost everyone else. It's the team that has more talent, specially in the offensive midfield area. They have absurd amounts of talent upfront and in the defensive point of view they know how to organize themselves. Brasil has an unrivalled potential. And then there are other teams with chances : Holland, Portugal, Argentina, England, France, Spain. Who's better than who? Anyone can win. Anyone...

[nicephoras]

Thanks a lot for this!

[Montana_Soccer]

That was brilliant. Thanks!

[yasik19]

the man speaks the truth.

[chelsea new yorker]

Thanks so much sl1!!!
"In Jose we trust"

[qazwsx]

Cheers Sportinglisbon1,

Some rep comming your way.

PS. Is it possible to get the rest of the interview?

[leafster]

You guys can read Mourinho's own weekly column from Record translated to English on this website

http://www.portugoal.net/MourinhoColumn/MourinhoWk15.htm

The above article is about Maniche, the Boxing day match with Fulham, and on a Korean player signing with Sporting Braga.

I think this guy translated almost all of his articles going back a few months.

[bigtoga]

Great stuff - thanks for the posts. Like him or hate him, the guy's a soccer genius in my mind. He is, without question, one of the top coaches in the world today.

[nicephoras]

Are you allowed back on the ManUtd boards after posting that? :eek: ;)

[bigtoga]

hehe - oh come on, I didn't say he was better than Alex Ferguson :)

[blackjack]

He is, without question, one of the top coaches in the world today.
You implied it though. ;)

[jankballs]

great read.

I respect JM even more now.