Eurosport - Fri, 29 Aug 06:55:00 2008
Jose Mourinho has revealed he turned down an opportunity to leave Chelsea after their FA Cup final victory over Manchester United last year and admits he regrets the decision.
Mourinho, now the manager of Internazionale, spent last season on the sidelines after leaving Stamford Bridge by mutual consent in September - just four months after choosing not to turn his back on the Premier League club.
Now the 45-year-old admits he wishes he had chosen to take up the opportunity to leave the Blues after their 1-0 win over the Red Devils at Wembley.
"If there is a moment in my career where I regret a decision it was clearly the day after the FA Cup final - when my agent told me 'Club X' want you tomorrow and I told him no, I love it here and I don't want to go, I want to stay," he told Feel Football.
"That's the moment I regret. After that day, after that final, I should [have left] Chelsea and I would have the chance in Wembley to say goodbye to the fans and to say goodbye to English football.
"So that's a moment I regret because the next season lasted only a couple of months."
Mourinho led Chelsea to their first league title in 50 years in 2005 and built a strong rapport with the fans during three seasons at the club.
The Portuguese retained the Premier League crown in 2006 and he secured two League Cup trophies before winning his last piece of silverware with their FA Cup victory last year.
Despite the breakdown of the relationship, Mourinho has declared his "love" for the club.
"I only have friends in Chelsea and I have problems with nobody - but if I had stayed there one, two, three, four more weeks I wouldn't be saying this," he continued.
"I love that club; I'm in the history of that club and I left the club in the right moment to feel like that and to say that honestly.
"So it was the right moment to do it. But clearly if I regret one decision in my career it's that decision of staying at Chelsea, not for one more season, [but for] a few more months."
Comment 6 - 25 of 25
If Jose was ever to go back to England to managage it would only before Chelsea or England.
I think jose will be fergies replacement I really believe that
Ferguson forever! Jose is @#$% up
to terry well lets be honest i dont enjoy the game as much as i did in the 80's or 90's its boring and the real fans are getting priced out the game and its a combination of sky and people like abromovic and players having to much power that have done the damage to the game which is lets face it, the working mans game, roy keane was spot on with the prawn sandwich outburst.
Honestly, it is Jose Mouriho that made me a complete club fan. I like a man who has self-beleive and that can turn it to a result. With a little background of football, not having play a competitive football in his career and with a "little" experience as a club manager, within short a moment of his carreer he has achieved so much that some very old club managers have never come close. Honestly, if Jose were to be placed in a scale considering his years in the game and the achievements he has got, he is going to be the arguably the best coach in the world. He is such a special one. A great character. A great psychologist. A great achiever. A charimatic personality. Chelsea fans always miss him. He turned the attention of the whole world towards Premiership when he came. The chain effect is the influx of new and great players we are witnessing now in England. I wish JM success in Inter and that one day I will come back to England Chelsea in particular.
even though i am a die hard liverpool fan, i admire jose very much. his style of football and his technical mind can be matched by none, not even the great sir alex. chelsea were stupid to let him go, everyone has there off days, and if a team make a slow start it is not nessesarerly the fault of the manager but most of the time the players. i wish him well at inter were his gritty style of 1-0 wins will help him very much
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mourinho will be the next man u manager when the great one leaves so the chosen one can take his place at a great club who likes a good manager not like chelsea who have had how many since the russian took over , welcome jose to old trafford in a few years
Mourinho is a @#$%,he should shut up that now he is milan,concentrate on ur team n stop giving out lil annoyin comments
Well, I´m a Premiership portuguese fan.I know Mourinho very well.He has very good skills as trainer but the most important one is his relation with all players. Only by psichological work he can change normal players in superb ones. Look at Chelsea and remember some players before and after Mourinho era: Lampard, Terry, Joe Cole, Drogba. In FC Porto the same happened with 5, 6 players, Carvalho included.However, in Italy things could be a little different. There, the football style is quite tactical and main purpose of all teams is not lose. So Mourinho should have a time to understand such changes.Meanwhile the results can not appear and it´s possible tiffosi start to scream and question Mourinho job. Let´s see.All the luck to him in Italy.
Dont know why you are all so tearful. You obviously havent realised he is only a "Roman" holiday and is coming back soon to take over from Fergie. He is looking forward to managing a real club:)
If there 's a coach i love is no one than JOSE MORINHO is a good coach and knows how to win matches. is came against Totteham in 2006 was a fantastic one from 3-0 down at stamford bridge to come back and still draw the game with a club like Totteham means hes a great coach. He had only spent 2 months in International and had already started winning Trophy this is just the beggining Morinho will clame virtually all the Trophies in "Serial-A" i know him for that...... JOSE MORINHO keep on keeping u are the best coach in the world. ALL THE BEST IN UR CAREER WITH INTER a great man indeed I LOVE U.................................................
From Ezekiel .O (Nig)
To Ted. You started well, concise and accurate. Then you lost it with your diatribe about history and Forest, Everton etc. History is just that, where are these teams now? Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea are the future. Live with it. The more angry you got the worse your spelling became, calm down, it's only a game.
JOSE was a good coach, good with the players BUT ..............Chelsea never really played great football!!
JOSE should do good at INTER as they already have a decent team!!
Handedly
Agreed. The really amazing thing is how much Jose was loved and respected by non Chelsea supporters. Proven by the millions who wanted him for England job. There is just something great about people who are true characters and can back it up with performance. Come back again Jose. Man U supporter
I have been a Chelsea supporter since I was a boy and there is not a shadow of a doubt that JM was the most successful manager we have ever had and as he has said he has earned himself a place in the clubs history
support from wales
Abramovic should be ashamed of himself letting a young talented manager go, roman thinks he can pick the team then maybe he should do his FIFA badges, roman wants to win everything at all costs playing the way of brazil of 1970, its not going to happen. Chelsea have and always will be a medium sized club, they are not a european giant the likes of Nottingham forest, wolves and Everton have more history that chelsea ever will they never bought there success.
"English"
He changed Wnglish football single handidly
" Don`t know what you`ve got till it`s gone "
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