Tag: Mourinho

Chelsea manager José Mourinho has taken a swipe at Manchester United by saying that their hopes of retaining the title are over after David Moyes’ team suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of his team. Manchester United were the visitors to Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have enjoyed a good record this season. Moyes was coming into the match without two of his main players – Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie – not available due to fitness issues. The former Everton manager has not won in 47 matches against the traditional top four of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

This record continued on Sunday after his team lost 3-1 following a hat-trick from Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroon international opened the scoring with a deflected effort, but it was largely due to the inept defending of United. His second goal also showed the huge defensive lapses within the champions. Immediately after the second half began, Chelsea were cruising after the 32-year-old poked in an effort from close range. Nemanja Vidic was sent off in a few minutes from time, while Rafael could also have received a red card for his two footed lunge on Gary Cahill.

As a result of this defeat, United have fallen a massive 14 points behind Arsenal in the table. Mourinho says that it is impossible to win the title from this position.

“Maybe if I say [United are out of title contention], some people from United would ask: ‘Who am I to say that?’. But I don’t think David will be upset if I say the reality: 14 points difference and 13 and 12 [to the others]. Can they recover to one of those teams? They can but to three of them? It needs three teams to have almost a collapse,” said Mourinho after the match.

The manager of Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, is not happy with the preparation of his team for the Champions League game against FC Basel which will be played at St. Jakob Park next Tuesday.

Because of the international break, Mourinho had been without his main players since the last few days as all of them were out playing for their respective national sides. They have just returned from the break and they will be off to Switzerland tomorrow for that game against FC Basel. Mourinho is not happy about all that. He reckons that the preparation of his team is not the best for the upcoming game.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Mourinho said, “In the last 10 days or so, there were only 4 first team guys at the club. The rest were out on national duty and I had no idea what they were doing. All I could do was to watch them on TV.”

“That was not an ideal situation to be in as a manager. Before such an important game, you want to know how your players are training and if they are taking enough rest or not, but, I couldn’t do that because I didn’t have my players around.”

“They have just come back and I don’t know how they are mentally and physically. When a guy returns after playing for his national team, you are not sure about his fitness.”

Chelsea is in a good position in the Champions League at the moment. They are leading the points table of their group which is Group E. They have secured 9 points from 4 games with the help of 3 wins.

Even if the Blues stop Basel on a draw on Tuesday, they would make it to the Knockouts.

Tottenham have been demanding when it comes to the transfer of Gareth Bale. So far, they have said that the Welsh international is not for sale at any price. However, it is believed that internally the chairman – Daniel Levy – is willing to accept an offer of around £ 100 million for the 24-year-old. This would make the world record holder for the highest transfer fee paid for a footballer. The record is currently held by Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who cost to the club £ 80 million when he moved in 2009.

It is believed that Real Madrid are considering paying this exorbitant transfer fee for the player, who was signed for around £ 5 million from Southampton a few years ago. Chelsea manager José Mourinho, though, thinks that Spurs are right to demand the fee for the player. Bale has been one of the outstanding players in the Premier league over the last few seasons. He has been a major reason towards Tottenham inching closer towards a regular top four finish. The club has had two top four finishers in the last four years. However, the lack of Champions league football could be detrimental to the club’s effort of keeping Bale.

“He is fantastic. He has this quality that has made the difference when the team was not able to make the difference. This is what makes the value of the player very high. This guy wins matches. He has an unbelievable shot, an unbelievable action, goals in the last minute, goals when it looks like they are going to draw and they win, goals when it looks like they are going to lose and they draw. So when I listen and read some numbers I think this kid will be worth every pound people are speaking about,” said Mourinho.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is of the opinion that Portuguese manager José Mourinho will be able to repeat his success at Stamford Bridge if he arrives at the club for a second spell. Mourinho has widely been linked with a return to the club in the summer. His fall out with most of the Spanish media and the players at Real Madrid is widely expected to lead to his departure. Mourinho has hinted on several occasions this season that he may return to a club where he is loved. Mourinho enjoyed a lot of success with Chelsea, which led to him being adored by the fans even now.

During his 30 months at the club, he managed to lift six major trophies. After recently signing a one-year contract extension, Lampard believes that a possible return of Mourinho could signal another era of domination by the West London outfit. The future of Lampard was in a huge cloud of doubt only a few weeks ago, but he has managed to agree terms with Chelsea and sign a new one-year deal. He recently became the record goalscorer for the club after scoring his 203rd goal against Aston Villa. He went on to lift the Europa league title as well.

“There’s no way he’ll come back and rest on any laurels or rest on anything that happened before. With him at the helm we are going to give it a great go. I certainly think he can because he is a workaholic. He’s got desire. It is not confirmed yet [but] the idea of working with him is brilliant. His talent and ability as a manager for me is the best – certainly the best I’ve worked with. I think he will take the club on again,” said Lampard in an interview to the BBC.