Jose Mourinho

 Jose Mourinho - First Team Manager

Jose Mourinho returned to Chelsea for his second spell as manager on 3 June 2013.
He had previously been in charge at Stamford Bridge between 2004 and 2007, steering the club to our first league championship in 50 years, successfully defending the Premier League title in 2006 while also adding two League Cups and the FA Cup, won in the first competitive fixture at the new Wembley Stadium.


Following his departure in 2007, Jose joined Inter Milan, and promptly won back-to-back Serie A titles before adding the Champions League, the first time the Nerazzurri had won that competition since 1965. They also became the first team in Italy to do the league, cup and Champions League treble.

That year, 2010, he won the inaugural FIFA World Coach of the Year award. He has also been manager of the season in Portugal, England and Italy. Real Madrid came calling, and Mourinho accepted the new challenge.


Overhauling the all-conquering Barcelona was never going to be easy, and in his first season he fell four points short as the Barça side also knocked them out of the Champions League.

However in 2012 his team won La Liga, accruing 100 points and scoring a record 121 goals in 38 games. Barça would end the season without silverware.


With nine European Cups to their name, Real have become obsessed with lifting a 10th, and the 2012/13 season, after a poor start in the league, was geared towards continental success, but as previously with the Blues, Mourinho's men fell at the semi-final stage.

Madrid and their manager parted, and his last game was a 4-2 win over Osasuna at the Bernabeu two days before his appointment at Chelsea.


Mourinho had made his name in management while in charge of Benfica and Uniao de Leiria, having started out as an assistant to the late Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting and Porto, following him to Barcelona.


He returned to Porto as manager in 2002, leading them to the 2003 UEFA Cup by beating Celtic, and in 2004 he went one better with Champions League glory that would make him a household name and his players coveted across Europe.

He too had outgrown Portugal, and was attracted to Roman Abramovich's new project in west London.


With him came defenders Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho, and he added Didier Drogba while inheriting Petr Cech and Arjen Robben from pre-agreed transfers. John Terry and Frank Lampard were already there to complete the spine of a side that would lose only one game in the league all season, storming to the league title with a record 95 points and picking up the Carling Cup along the way.

European success proved evasive, with Liverpool eliminating us in the Champions League semi-finals with a famous 'ghost goal', but a year later we were celebrating domestically again, with another Premier League title. Chelsea were the undisputed best team in the land.


That crown slipped during the 2006/07 season as injuries took their toll, Man United reclaiming the league title while once again Liverpool proved our downfall in Europe, this time on penalties and again in the semi-finals. Chelsea and Mourinho, however, performed well in the cups, lifting the Carling Cup in Cardiff against Arsenal, and beating United at Wembley to lift the FA Cup.


Mourinho departed by mutual consent in the September of 2007, just a few weeks into the new season.


Nearly six years later, he returned on a four-year deal, declaring to Chelsea fans that the difference between 2004 and 2013 was that he was now 'one of you'. There are exciting times ahead.

The Chelsea Years

2004/05

European glory at Porto had thrust Mourinho into the public eye, and when he decided he needed a fresh challenge it was Roman Abramovich’s evolving project in west London that caught his attention.
The Portuguese completed his move to Chelsea on 2 June 2004 and brought with him assistant coach Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, goalkeeping coach Silvinho Louro and scout Andre Villas-Boas. A Chelsea legend, Steve Clarke, completed the new management line-up.
There were plenty of fresh faces in the playing squad, too, including defenders Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho – who came with him from Porto – and Didier Drogba, a striker who had impressed against Mourinho’s former side for Marseille. He inherited the pre-agreed transfers of Petr Cech and Arjen Robben, while John Terry and Frank Lampard were also there to complete the spine of a side that would lose only one league game all season.

I’m happy, I’m proud. I’m happy for myself, the players and fans and everyone associated with Chelsea. I have a lot of feelings at the same time. I know that a lot of people didn’t believe in our first season we could do it. But my nature is not to be happy with what we did. We want more. This is the beginning of a process, not the end. This is my first season and I want to win more for me and more for Chelsea. The players have a good taste and want more. I told them to enjoy today because tomorrow is another day.

Winning the league in 2005

The Blues had occasionally gone close in the league in prior years, including in the pre-Abramovich era, so Mourinho’s greatest accomplishment in that first glorious campaign was to transform the team and the club into battle-hardened winners who feared no-one and possessed both the ability and the tenacity to cross the line in first place.

For the fans, for the players, fantastic. I told them at half-time: next time we are together we must be champions.

Bolton April 30th 2005

In the end, we stormed to the championship title in spectacular fashion, amassing a record 95 points and conceding a paltry 15 goals, the equal lowest total in English top-flight history (Preston’s concession of 15 goals had come in only 22 games in 1888/89, the inaugural Football League season).

There was no time to breathe, no time to enjoy the moment. Emotions were running high at the end of the game. I’ve played finals and I didn’t run onto the pitch like I did today. Players, coaches, the medical department, everybody was involved.

Beating Barcelona 4-2 2005

Mourinho introduced a 4-3-3 system having tried but not been completely satisfied with a diamond formation in the season’s openers, and the move proved revolutionary. With Robben on one wing and Damien Duff on the other, the Blues began swatting teams aside. The combination of potent attacking at one end and rock-solid defence at the other proved too good for most.
There was a mid-season trophy for Mourinho’s men to celebrate as we defeated Liverpool in the Carling Cup Final in Cardiff, a win that preceded famous triumphs over European giants Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

All of my players were magnificent and we deserved to win. No doubt.

Carling Cup victory 2005

Sadly Liverpool eliminated us in the Champions League semi-finals courtesy of a infamous ‘ghost goal’, but Mourinho’s maiden year in English football could barely have gone better. The benchmark had been set.

2005/06

The relentlessness that had marked our success in 2004/05 continued the following year as we won 12 of our first 13 games in all competitions. One win in five in a two-week spell spanning the end of October and beginning of November preceded another monstrous run of 12 wins in 13 games, and we began the new year 14 points clear at the top.
There were some sticky moments to come, including away defeats to Middlesbrough and Fulham, as well as Champions League and FA Cup exits to new rivals Barcelona and Liverpool respectively, but the Blues motored through those rough patches to claim a second consecutive league title that had long seemed a formality.
One Mourinho masterclass came in the 4-1 home win over West Ham in April. A goal and a man down, the Portuguese stuck with Didier Drogba and Hernan Crespo (the Argentinean striker revitalised in his first season under Mourinho) up front and was rewarded with four goals and a convincing home win.
It was fitting the title was secured against closest challengers Manchester United at Stamford Bridge - almost a year to the day since we had done likewise at Bolton in 2005 – as our outstanding form on home turf, where we dropped just two points, was the pillar on which the second championship success was built. Chelsea were again, undisputedly, the best team in the land.

The medal is for everybody but whoever caught it is lucky. We are the best team in the country and we really deserve this moment. The crowd here is special. They have contributed so much to the record we have at home. It is extra special in the Matthew Harding Stand.

Last year was different for us all. Even when we were seven or eight points clear, no one believed we could do it.

But this season it was the opposite. Liverpool and United had poor starts to the season and, as soon as we were a long way clear, everyone said the title was won already.

We had to manage a different and difficult situation, but we did and the feeling is unbelievable.

I told the players before the game that we could not allow a team to come here and take away the trophy. It is ours and we deserve it. The best two teams came together today.

Winning the league in 2006

2006/07

That crown slipped during the 2006/07 season as Manchester United reclaimed the league title with a couple of games to spare. It was a season that was missing just one game – the Champions League Final, Liverpool once again proving our downfall in Europe, this time on penalties – and as the fixtures piled up so did the injury list. Key squad members Petr Cech, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Arjen Robben were all absent for sustained periods, with the lack of central defenders sometimes meaning Michael Essien was forced to drop back.
Though the league successes of the previous two seasons could not quite be matched there was still domestic joy in the form of the League Cup and the FA Cup, with the final victories over Arsenal and Manchester United further proof of Mourinho’s ability to tactically outmanoeuvre opposition managers in the cauldron of a big one-off game.
Indeed, there was no finer testament to Mourinho’s nous than in that FA Cup final against Alex Ferguson’s side, where the deployment of both Claude Makelele and John Mikel Obi helped stifle the attacking talents of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, paving the way for Drogba – the campaign’s outstanding performer – to net a late winner. The first final at the new Wembley, like the last at the old one, was a blue day.

This is not just an FA Cup. It is the first FA Cup that we've won. It is an FA Cup against Man United. It is an FA Cup that means the opportunity to say in three seasons we've won everything that's important in English football.

We've won six domestic competitions. Two Premierships, two Carlings, one Charity and now one FA Cup. United are the champions now. They have won one FA Cup. You can see the dominance of Chelsea.

2007 FA Cup win

2007/08

Mourinho departed by mutual consent in the September of 2007, just a few weeks into the new season. A run of three games without a win, including a frustrating home draw with Norwegian side Rosenborg, sparked the end of a dramatic and thrilling spell in charge. He left the Bridge as our most successful manager of all time.

I am very proud of my work in Chelsea Football Club and I think my decision in May 2004 to come to England was an excellent one.

It was a beautiful and rich period of my career. I want to thank all Chelsea FC supporters for what I believe is a never-ending love story.

I wish great success to the club, a club that will be forever connected to me for some historic moments. I also wish the players happiness in football and in their family life.

Leaving the club in 2007

2013/14

Mourinho returned to manage the Blues in June 2013, a little less than six years since he was last in the post. He brought with him familiar faces Rui Faria and Silvino Louro, as well as another assistant first team coach Jose Morais. The management line-up was completed by Steve Holland, a man already embedded in the Chelsea coaching set-up.
A roar that sounded like a goal had been scored greeted Mourinho when he emerged from the tunnel before our first game of the season, at home to Hull. He responded by blowing kisses to the crowd, and the team kept the feel-good factor up with a 2-0 win.
A more competitive league than the one he had left – by his own admission - meant long winning runs proved harder to come by in his first season back, but Mourinho helped keep us top or very close to the top throughout a compelling Premier League season.
We would eventually finish four points behind champions Manchester City but not before Mourinho had masterminded home and away wins against them, as well as second-placed Liverpool. Our victories at the Etihad and Anfield, against free-scoring sides in excellent form, were prime examples of his tactical acumen.
There was another run to the Champions League semi-final to enjoy, too. Mourinho’s substitutions helped turn a 3-1 deficit to PSG around during the last eight and he also oversaw a goalless draw away to Atletico Madrid in the semi-final first leg, before losing out 3-1 in the return.
Though the season ended without silverware there was plenty to suggest Blues supporters have much to look forward to in the seasons ahead.

The early days

Mourinho made his breakthrough in management in charge of Benfica and then Uniao de Leiria in his native Portugal. Prior to that he had been an assistant to the late Sir Bobby Robson when the former England boss took over at Sporting Lisbon in 1992. Such was the impression Mourinho made, Robson subsequently took the Portuguese with him to Porto and then Barcelona; he was quickly putting his coaching qualifications to good effect, taking training sessions and discussing tactics with the players.
When Robson moved to PSV after one season in Catalonia, Barça were keen to keep Mourinho on and he teamed up with incoming manager Louis Van Gaal to become his assistant, with consecutive La Liga titles pointing to a fruitful partnership.
Mourinho returned to Portugal to become Benfica’s assistant manager and soon took over there, his first managerial post ending after nine league games in charge following a dispute with the Lisbon club’s president. Mourinho had impressed in that short time, though, and was appointed manager of Uniao de Leiria in April 2001. He took the lowly Portuguese club to their highest finish that season, and by the time he moved on to take charge of Porto nine months after joining Leiria they lay third in the Portuguese table.

Porto

Mourinho joined a Porto side lying two places behind the team he had left, but engineered a strong end to the season to ensure a spot in the UEFA Cup for the 2002/03 campaign. He masterminded glory in that competition – beating Celtic in the final - and there was domestic success as well as Porto won the league at a canter and defeated Mourinho’s former side Leiria in the final of the Portuguese Cup.
Mourinho and Porto went one better in 2003/04, lifting the European Cup for the second time in their history as well as the league. In Europe, Mourinho’s brilliance had carried his team past Manchester United, Lyon, Deportivo La Coruna and, in the final, Monaco. He was, along with his players, immediately coveted across Europe. Stamford Bridge beckoned.

Inter Milan

Following his departure from Chelsea in September 2007 Mourinho took a break before he joined Inter Milan for 2008/09, and promptly won back-to-back Serie A titles before adding the Champions League in his second season, the first time the Nerazzurri had won that competition since 1965. They also became the first team in Italy to do the league, cup and Champions League treble.
That year, 2010, he won the inaugural FIFA World Coach of the Year award. He has also been manager of the season in Portugal, England and Italy. Real Madrid came calling, and Mourinho accepted the new challenge.

Real Madrid

Overhauling the all-conquering Barcelona was never going to be easy, and in his first season he fell four points short as the Barça side also knocked them out of the Champions League.
However in 2012 his team won La Liga, accruing 100 points and scoring a record 121 goals in 38 games. Barça would end the season without silverware.
With nine European Cups to their name, Real strongly coveted a 10th, and the 2012/13 season, after a slow start in the league, was geared towards continental success, but as previously with the Blues, Mourinho's men fell at the semi-final stage.
Madrid and their manager parted, and his last game was a 4-2 win over Osasuna at the Bernabeu.