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Tag: Jose Mourinho

  • I communicate with Mourinho almost everyday – Muntari

    I communicate with Mourinho almost everyday – Muntari

    Sulley Muntari has stated he still maintains a “good relationship” with former Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho even after a decade from their famous treble-winning campaign.

    The 35-year old Ghanaian played 41 competitive games en route to winning a historic treble of the Serie A, Champions League and Coppa Italia, becoming the first and only Italian team to achieve this.

    Muntari arrived in the summer of 2008, the same period Mourinho – who is now managing Tottenham Hotspur, joined, and went on to make 97 appearances in four seasons, scoring eight goals, providing 10 assists and winning a total of eight trophies.

    “We were a great team, built by two great people in Massimo Moratti and Jose Mourinho, Muntari told Derbyderbyderby.

    “We won everything. The relationship with Mourinho is still very good today. We are always in touch. We speak to each other almost every day, we have a chat consisting of the treble winners. Almost every morning someone writes something.

    “Apart from the four who always tease me, Orlandoni, Materazzi, Chivu and Sneijder, everyone else is a good guy.”

  • Tough Mourinho made me a better player – Rashford

    Tough Mourinho made me a better player – Rashford

    Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford says a ‘tough period’ under Jose Mourinho made him a ‘better player’.

    Rashford struggled to find consistency under the Portuguese, despite scoring 28 goals and providing 28 assists.

    He has since flourished under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, which he believes has stemmed from his time learning from Mourinho.

    “It was tough but I think when you look back on it in five or six years, they’re the moments that give you that mental toughness,” Rashford told the UTD Podcast.

    “As an all-round player I’ve improved a lot and a lot of it is down to those two years under Jose.

    “We had ups and downs. When I look back at it, it was a tough period but definitely a period that made me a better player.”

  • Mourinho had agreement with Liverpool before Abramovich approach, agent reveals

    Mourinho had agreement with Liverpool before Abramovich approach, agent reveals

    Jose Mourinho had a deal with Liverpool before the intervention of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, it has been revealed.

    Mourinho, now in charge of Tottenham, was close to taking over from Gerard Houllier during a mediocre season at Anfield in 2004.

    In a new book, ‘Mourinho: Beyond the Special One, from the origin to the glory’, his former advisor, Jorge Baidek has confirmed there was an agreement in place with the Reds.

    But they were asked to wait just over two weeks with Houllier still in charge, by which time Chelsea pounced.

    Baidek recalled: “Mourinho should have gone to Liverpool.

    “Rick Parry [then chief executive] was in charge of transfers and we had an agreement.

    “They asked us to wait for 15 days as Houllier was still the Reds’ manager.”

    Bruno Satin, Houllier’s agent, had been involved in negotiations but super-agent Jorge Mendes alerted Chelsea they still had a chance to act.

    He helped engineer their attractive offer, and a meeting before Porto’s Champions League semi-final saw Mourinho meet Abramovich for the first time.

    Soon, a deal was rubber-stamped on his yacht the day after Mourinho’s Champions League triumph.

  • The day Mourinho threatened to sell me – Terry

    The day Mourinho threatened to sell me – Terry

    Chelsea legend John Terry has revealed how his former boss Jose Mourinho threatened to sell him.

    Mourinho – now in charge at Tottenham Hotspur – returned to Stamford Bridge in 2013 after leading the Blues to back-to-back Premier League titles during his first spell between 2004 and 2007.

    During an Instagram Live with snooker great Stephen Hendry, Terry was asked if Mourinho liked to be close to his players or if he regularly gave them earfuls. He responded: “He knew when to push your buttons and when not to.

    “Even small things, you’d be sitting at home and get a text message off him going, ‘Unbelievable today in training you’re my main man, love you, captain.’ You’d sit there and go, ‘That’s unbelievable’.

    “So a really good relationship, but also I was petrified of him, like probably most players was. You’d go in the next day and you’d get nothing from him at all.

    “He’d walk past you, say nothing and blank you. You’d think you’ve upset him. Did I text something back? You look at your messages and think, ‘No, I’m alright there.’

    “After training, he’d go, ‘That’s why you’re my captain, you just needed that little push.’ We won the league and came back pre-season, first day, me and Gary Cahill kept giving the ball away. He stopped the session, we’d just signed Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, a couple of others.

    “He said, “You two, I’ll go and spend £100m on a couple of other centre-backs if you keep giving the ball away.” We looked at each other and thought, ‘Oh wow’.

    “So me and Gaz now, first day of pre-season, we’ve gone round started smashing everyone in training. The tempo has gone up, everyone’s kicking lumps out of each other.

    “After training, he came and put his arm round us both and said, ‘That’s why you’ll be starting this season.’ He just knew exactly what he was doing, he was four steps ahead of everyone else.”

  • Coronavirus gives Mourinho transfer headache

    Coronavirus gives Mourinho transfer headache

    Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho is facing a transfer headache because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

    The Spurs boss wanted to rejig his squad in the summer to try and compete for a top four position.

    Mourinho knows they need to add defensive steel and goals to the team in the summer.

    But the Daily Mail reports that Spurs are going to further cut an already small transfer budget for Mourinho.

    Spurs are struggling financially, with non-playing staff told to take a 20 percent pay cut.

    Players and Mourinho may soon have to follow suit.

    It is unlikely they will make too many millions available for transfers, especially when they are also paying off their stadium.

  • Harry Kane recovering ahead of schedule – Mourinho

    Striker Harry Kane is ahead of schedule in his recovery from surgery on his hamstring, according to Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho.

    The Spurs boss had initially hoped the 26-year-old England captain would return for a couple of games before the end of the season.

    On Friday, he said: “I would say he is a little bit ahead.

    “It gives me a hope that instead of one or two matches, it’s three, four, five.”

    Kane had surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his hamstring, an injury he sustained in defeat by Southampton on New Year’s Day. He is expected to return to training in April, two months before Euro 2020 begins.

    Mourinho was also hopeful of seeing the injured Son Heung-min return before the summer.

    The South Korea international had surgery on a broken arm suffered in a 3-2 win against Aston Villa earlier this month, with the club declaring he would be sidelined for a “number of weeks”.

    Mourinho said: “I cannot imagine when, but there is a good possibility before the end of the season we have Sonny and Harry playing together.”

  • Mourinho told me I was rubbish – Chelsea defender

    Mourinho told me I was rubbish – Chelsea defender

    Chelsea defender, Kurt Zouma, has said Jose Mourinho once called him “rubbish” during their time together at the club.

    Mourinho brought Zouma as a 19-year-old to Stamford Bridge from St Etienne in 2014.

    Following a performance he was not impressed with, the Portuguese called Zouma into his office and gave him a dressing down.

    “I cannot remember which match we were playing, we were losing 3-1, away from home.

    “The following day, he [Mourinho] catches up with me, he takes me to his office, and he asks me if I am ok. I said yes, he asked me if I was sure.

    “I said yes again, he replied ‘Because you were rubbish this weekend.’ Like that, direct. It shocked me, but it made me want to immediately respond on the pitch,” Zouma told RMC Sport.

    From that time, Zouma has been sent on loan deals to Stoke City and Everton.

    However, this season he has become a mainstay for Frank Lampard’s team.

    Zouma is expected to be in Chelsea’s starting XI when they host Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League next week.

  • John Terry reveals best manager he has ever worked with

    John Terry reveals best manager he has ever worked with

    John Terry has named his former Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, as the best manager he worked with during his playing days.

    Both men won eight trophies during two spells together at Stamford Bridge.

    Terry, who now is the assistant manager at Aston Villa, comes up against Mourinho’s Tottenham on Sunday in the Premier League.

    And the ex-England captain, speaking about Mourinho ahead of the game, told reporters: “When he told us something, that we were going to win 4-0, 5-0, it always happened. Always, it was like he could predict the future.

    “In my career, he has been the best manager by a long way.

  • I went viral for the wrong reasons – Mourinho

    I went viral for the wrong reasons – Mourinho

    Dele Alli was lucky to have escaped a serious injury from a Raheem Sterling tackle when Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 2-0 last Sunday, Jose Mourinho has said while admitting his behaviour during the match saw him go viral “for the wrong reasons”.

    It was one of several refereeing decisions to grate on Mourinho during the gripping encounter, with the use of VAR once again at the centre of post-match discussions.

    But Alli was fit enough to face Southampton on Wednesday. “No, it’s not as bad as we first thought,” Mourinho told reporters.

    “It’s just a question of being a little bit lucky, or unlucky. You need a little bit of luck. Dele Alli was very lucky.

    “Did Sterling want to injure him? I don’t think so, I don’t believe that he wanted to hurt Alli. So, respect to Sterling, I have no problem at all.

    “But the intention does not count. What counts is the action. It is a red card.”

    Mourinho was particularly animated on the touchline against City, with footage of one action going viral on social media – the clip showing him sprinting to the fourth official to complain about a decision in the aftermath of Hugo Lloris’ penalty save.

    The Portuguese coach accepts he may have gone too far with his reaction, but explained his frustration stemmed from what he feels is a misuse of VAR.

    “[I went viral] in a funny way, but not in a good way, but I say in a funny way,” he said.

    “I think the fact that now it is allowed to have the screen in front of us… I think it’s not good for the emotions, for our emotions, because we watch and we watch exactly the same as the VAR [official] is watching, decisions the referees don’t see as well as we do.

    “That’s because the referees, they are on the pitch and, as I was saying the other day, it is 200 miles per hour and very difficult for them, and sometimes they don’t see things the same way we do.

  • ‘Mourinho didn’t give me chance as others’

    ‘Mourinho didn’t give me chance as others’

    Newcastle loan signing Danny Rose says he was not given the same opportunities as his fellow defenders to prove himself to Jose Mourinho at Tottenham.

    The 29-year-old made 16 appearances for Spurs early in the season but only five after Mourinho became manager on 20 November.

    “I do feel I wasn’t given as much of a chance as everybody else in the backline,” the left-back told BBC.

    “I did want to play for him.”

    The Doncaster-born player added: “I knew after a month [of Mourinho joining] I was never going to play. It was difficult going out to train knowing I wasn’t going to play.

    “It’s not worked out, but full respect to him and what he’s doing at the club. He took over with the club 12 points adrift of Chelsea [now in fourth place] and now it’s four.

    “I have to be honest, I thought I would continue playing.”