Jose Mourinho says he'll never be 'deleted' from Chelsea history and makes Blue admission

Jose Mourinho still revels in the part he played in making Chelsea one of Europe’s super clubs.

Mourinho surveyed the Drake Suite at Stamford Bridge where several huge pictures of his past glories are hung to recognise his remarkable achievements. Benfica boss Mourinho says some clubs live in “fear” of putting up photos because they want to “delete” their success for fear of intimidating their current managers.

But Mourinho says Chelsea will always be bigger than that as he boasted he made them the club they are today and they helped him establish himself as a Special One. Mourinho said: “Of course, I will always be a Blue. I am part of their history and they are part of my history. I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me to become a bigger Jose.

“But in relation to these pictures, there are not many clubs that do this, because in many, many clubs it looks like there is a fear of what happened in the past and there is a continuous transformation of pictures. Sometimes it looks like they want to delete people that made history in the clubs.”

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Mourinho’s career is littered with great clubs and big trophies from three titles with Chelsea to winning the Champions League with Inter Milan and Porto. It has taken him to Real Madrid, Roma, Fenerbahce, Tottenham and Manchester United - and now back to Portugal with Benfica.

He still has a London house nearby Stamford Bridge which he regards as his spiritual home but he has certainly gone through the colours. From Chelsea’s blue to Benfica’s red.

“I’m not a blue anymore, I’m red and I want to win,” said Mourinho. “But I already played here with Tottenham, Man United and Inter Milan. In 90 minutes, I didn't think where I was or with who I was playing with. So when I say I am not a Blue, I hope everybody understands that I am speaking about the job that I have to do tomorrow.

"It’s not so deep to be back here because I live in London. I have been back here with three different teams – Benfica is my fourth – so I will not feel any antagonism. This is what I think. I don’t feel bad so there is no antagonism. I am able to isolate this context.”

Mourinho will always be the master of mind games and maybe he was talking up current Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca in typical Jose fashion. Maresca finds himself under pressure already after a patchy start and, after losing their first Champions League game at Bayern Munich, they have to beat Benfica at home.

It seems very tough on a manager who won a European trophy, got back in the Champions League and then lifted the Club World Cup. But Mourinho knows all about Chelsea’s expectations and demands for success. He admits that he thought they had lost that - but now Maresca has brought it back under joint owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.

Mourinho added: “Honestly, I don't know the model. I never studied their model. There was a set period where myself, from the outside, was putting some question marks on it because it looked like Chelsea had lost their identity as a club. But what happened in the last season got things back on track. They gave trust to Enzo and gave his ideas. He's fitted in well with the philosophy of the club.

"I feel it at the supporters' level. I feel it. I live five minutes from here and my son comes to the stadium every weekend. It was a period of disappointment. It was a period of doubt. But in this moment, it's a period of happiness and trust, so Chelsea is back on track.”

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