“How I Once Hid In A Laundry Basket” – Jose Mourinho

ADVERTISE HERE

ADVERTISE HERE

After the ‘spygate’ scandal at Leeds, Mourinho confirmed he had
hidden in a laundry basket in 2005 for Chelsea’s Champions League
quarter-final against Bayern Munich after receiving a two-game touchline
ban.

“I need to be with my players and I did it yeah,” he said.

“I
go to the dressing room during the day so I was there from midday and
the game is seven o’clock. I just want to be in the dressing room when
the players arrive. I went there and nobody saw me. The problem was to
leave after. And the kit man put me in the basket. It was a little bit
open so I could breathe.

“But when he was taking it outside the
dressing room, the Uefa guys were following and desperate to find me so
he closed the box and I couldn’t breathe. When he opened the box I was
dying.”

‘One player asked me not to criticise him in training’

At
various points Mourinho was critical of winger Anthony Martial,
full-back Luke Shaw and striker Marcus Rashford, who has been re-born
under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

But he outlined how one
player asked not to be criticised in training which Mourinho thought was
a sign of modern players being too sensitive.

“Recently, when I
was coaching one player he told me and he was very polite, ‘please when
you criticise me can you do it in private’,” he said.
“I told him why? ‘Because of my stature, in front of the other players when you criticise me I don’t feel comfortable’.

“Nowadays you have to be very smart in the way you read your players, and try to create the best situation.”

He
contrasted the situation with that of former Chelsea striker Didier
Drogba, with whom he worked at Stamford Bridge when he twice won the
Premier League in 2005 and 2006.

“With Drogba, he is the kind of
player that the more pressure from the manager, the more quality in his
performance,” Mourinho added.
“There are some players where if you squeeze them they answer in the best way.
“There
are other mentalities and personalities and the reaction is not the
best. They were brought up in a different way, an easier social life,
coming to the top level of football, everything came too easy to them.
“Some of them they don’t react in the same way. Certain moments, some strong public words, some of them have some risk.”

Mourinho
said that his philosophy depended on the team he was managing, but
rejected accusations that his sides were defensive or ‘parked the bus’.

He
cited the football played during his first stint at Chelsea and said:
“You know when the [parking the bus] reputation started?
“It was when I was champions with Real Madrid with 100 points and 106 goals – the record of Spanish football.”

He also hinted that he was not as well supported as Guardiola and Klopp.

That
is despite spending a then world record transfer fee of £89m for Paul
Pogba and £75m on striker Romelu Lukaku. In all Mourinho spent £400m on
players during his time in charge at Old Trafford.

He said: “At
Man City in the first season Guardiola was not a champion. In the second
season Pep made great decisions but those that were supported. In the
same summer he sold four full-backs and bought four backs.

“At
Liverpool how many players were there before Jurgen Klopp arrived? If
you are a manager and you [are able] to choose the players to follow
your idea, that’s one thing. The other thing is when you are not able to
do that.”

Mourinho also confirmed that has rejected 3 job offers since being sacked by Manchester United.

ADVERTISE HERE

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT ON THIS POST

Do you find Naijafinix Blog Useful??

Click Here for Feedback and 5-Star Rating!



Be the first to comment

Share your thoughts

Your email address will not be published.