Jose Mourinho hit the headlines once more final week, for that crimson card within the Europa League match towards Manchester United and for his consuming habits in Istanbul. It is claimed his lodge room-service of alternative is hen soup, pizza and ice cream all washed down with fizzy water. Extra on that later…
In the meantime, there was a lot extra on the menu once we sat down to talk at his house from house on the banks of the Bosphorus.
He is hungry for fulfillment with Fenerbahce in Turkey, he is hungry too, to sooner or later return to the Premier League, however he is discovering UEFA onerous to digest proper now.
‘It is a battle I can by no means win’
“The feeling is, I am in trouble in Europe. I lost a final in a way that I still don’t accept, and since then I feel it.”
Mourinho is referring after all to his Roma aspect’s Europa League remaining towards Sevilla in Might 2023. Referee Anthony Taylor waved away a Roma penalty attraction and was shouted at by Mourinho within the gamers’ automobile park on the Puskas Area. The incident was captured on digital camera and went viral, and the supervisor served a four-match ban.
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Watch the incident between Jose Mourinho and Anthony Taylor
“I feel it’s unfair in the sense that in football when you have to be punished you are punished, but after you’ve been punished it’s a clean sheet. It should then start from zero, but it didn’t start. We were knocked out of (this season’s) Champions League (qualifying) by Lille with a VAR penalty in the 94th minute that only VAR saw.”
Then after all there was Thursday evening.
“I was just screaming, like everyone on the bench and in the stadium, ‘It’s a penalty, it’s a penalty!’ without any kind of insult, and I get a red card.”
“I know it’s a battle I can never win,” he says.
‘I need to have trustworthy remedy’
Mourinho feels he has not been handled pretty
I ask if Jose feels he deserves higher remedy, given his large achievements in European competitions.
“No, no,” he insists, “I deserve to be (treated) like everybody else.
“On the pitch it would not matter if you’re Lionel Messi or taking part in your first match. The principles are the identical for Messi and the younger child. And for coaches it is the identical factor. It would not matter if you’re Carlo Ancelotti or a younger coach simply beginning. Ancelotti has to behave the identical manner because the younger child has to behave.
Mourinho is the one supervisor to have received all three of UEFA’s lively competitions
“That’s what I want for myself, and that’s what I am not getting.
“I do not need to have particular remedy, I need to have trustworthy remedy. Simply that. So if I do one thing mistaken punish and pay, but when I do nothing mistaken go away me in peace, nevertheless it’s getting tough.
“Since that Budapest final it’s getting difficult.”
Would Jose actually return for a relegation struggle within the Premier League?
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Mourinho joked that he would return to a Premier League crew within the backside half of the desk after Fenerbahce’s recreation towards Man Utd
After that Europa League draw with Manchester United, and the crimson card, Mourinho instructed journalists his subsequent job should be at a membership in England not concerned in European soccer.
However there’s dangerous information for followers of groups within the backside half of the Premier League. Jose would by no means tackle a relegation scrap.
“I made a joke,” he says. “I’m never going to a team fighting relegation. I will never go.”
He explains additional why he mentioned he would.
“I get upset, and I’m not in the period of my career to get upset. I’m in the period of my career to be happy all the time and at this moment playing in European competitions, I am getting upset all the time.
“However I am not going to struggle relegation. It is too onerous! Truthfully, I consider that needs to be the toughest factor. It is tougher than taking part in for titles. It needs to be very onerous emotionally, as a result of it is one thing that modifications lives.
“I think it’s brave guys that do it.”
After I inform him that shall be a blow to many supporters, the dialog takes a flip! Tongue in cheek, he says, why not south-east London?
“Millwall. Millwall,” he jokes. “I just cross the bridge from my house. Millwall!”
‘I’ve to be again within the Premier League, however not but’
Mourinho has received three Premier League titles
If you spend time with Jose Mourinho, you get the sense that his pure soccer house is the Premier League. After I put this to him, he would not object.
“I had three clubs in England, so four different periods I’ve coached in England, and I love it. And by the social point of view, I’ve been lucky enough to live in so many cities, but my family lives in London.
“London is house, so sooner or later I’ve to be again, except nobody desires me. However sooner or later I wish to return.
“But don’t get me wrong, and let’s make it very very clear, for the next two years, this season and next, no one will take me from Fenerbahce.”
‘I stay in Europe however on daily basis l go to Asia’
Jose may be very clearly having fun with his time in Istanbul. He appears to be like relaxed, tanned and trim.
“Istanbul is amazing,” he smiles. “I live in Europe and go every day to Asia for training, then I come back to Europe to sleep.”
I ask him to clarify this distinctive scenario. He is completely satisfied to.
“The bridges connect Istanbul’s European side to Asian side. I live in Europe, my club is in Asia.
“My coaching floor is in Asia. I go away right here and journey to the opposite aspect. It isn’t dramatic. It is much less time than I used to do from London to Cobham (Chelsea Coaching Floor), and if sooner or later I’m unfortunate and one thing is mistaken on the bridge, I get the boat to the opposite aspect. It is eight minutes, after which one other 10 minutes to the coaching floor.”
He says he goes every day.
He doesn’t.
Because later he tells me that he often sleeps at the training ground. Such, still, is his passion for the job.
“I keep there many instances. That is regular,” he says.
“I can not lose that need and starvation, as a result of for those who lose it is higher to cease. I at all times keep in mind going with Actual Madrid to Previous Trafford for a Champions League large match and Sir Alex invited me to his workplace earlier than the sport. We have been one another fairly relaxed – however we have been NOT relaxed – and I mentioned to him. ‘Sir Alex, do you alter with age? Do you alter with the years? Does the sensation change?’ And he instructed me ‘no!’ It would not change.”
Now Jose knows Sir Alex was right.
“It would not change. The sentiments are precisely the identical, and I feel that is a great factor.”
And that’s why last week’s draw with Manchester United was such a good feeling for Mourinho.
“The match towards United was a pleasure for me,” Mourinho says. “To see what each coach desires to see, which is seeing what you ready. Typically you put together issues, and you do not see it, however (on Thursday) the gamers performed at their most degree, as a result of there’s a distinction between the 2 leagues and the 2 groups.
“For me to stand in the dressing room and see everyone sad with the result was a fantastic feeling, because normally if you get a point from Manchester United you are happy.
“We might have shocked some individuals, as a result of generally individuals put tags with out seeing. I scored with Actual Madrid 105 objectives in a single season, and we have been thought-about a defensive crew and counter-attack crew.”
Jose rules out England job – for now
Thomas Tuchel begins his reign as England head coach on January 1
Was there any contact concerning the England job? I ask.
“Zero,” he says.
Is it a job he would have been occupied with?
“Today, no,” he insists.
“I still have too much energy to play one match per month, I need to play matches.”
However maybe sooner or later?
“Yes, I think it’s something I’d like to do, to have experience of playing at a World Cup, a Euros. To represent the country, my country or a country I feel connected to. One day I feel it will come, but not now.”
Soup, pizza and fizzy drinks
And so, to these headlines about his life-style in Istanbul. Ideas that when in his lodge, he orders room service consisting of very primary fare. All true it appears. Effectively, nearly.
“If you believe what you read, Jose, you are living like a hermit,” I observe. “Never leaving your room and eating soup.”
“Luckily they told the truth!” he says with an enormous smile.
“Because they could lie. So, when they say I drink sparkling water, they forgot it’s sometimes a coke. When they say chicken soup that’s fair, I do have it many, many times.”
After our chat, Jose and I ate. Not in his room. We headed out.
I had fish.
He had the standard.
