Jose Mourinho: The Man Who Spoke Too Much

Jose Mourinho has been in the headlines once again for all the wrong reasons.

Although I admire the man's wits I've never really been a fan of his—and especially not after his foul mouthed jibes at Barcelona in the Champions League last season.

Here are some of his controversial and not so controversial quotes...If you're a Mourinho fan you'd certainly enjoy reading them...

Jose Mourinho—On “Pressure”

• “There is no pressure at the top. The pressure’s being second or third”.
• “If I wanted to have an easy job… I would have stayed at Porto—beautiful blue chair, the Uefa Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me.”
• “Pressure? Pressure what? You cannot put pressure on me.”—When asked if Chelsea’s dip in form was due to the pressures of leading the Premiership
• “Pressure? There is no pressure. Bird Flu is pressure.(The Press Laugh) No, you laugh, but I am being serious. I am more worried about the swan then I am about football.”
• “Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is poor people in the world trying to feed their families. There is no pressure in football”—speaking in a post-match interview

• “I am more scared of bird flu than football. What is football compared with life? I have to buy some masks and stuff—maybe for my team as well.”—Speaking soon after H5N1 spread to Britain, and when Chelsea’s league lead over Manchester United had slipped to 7 points
• “Pressure? Pressure what? Pressure is millions of parents around the world with no money to feed their children.”—On the pressure of winning a game after losing twice in a row. Various other public figures paraphrased this quote.
• “For me…pressure is Bird Flu…I’m serious the Bird Flu in Scotland is bothering me more.”—Said during the week bird flu was discovered in Scotland and Manchester United close the gap at the top of the Premier League to 7 points—April 2006

Jose Mourinho—Philosophy / Tactics

• “I intend to give my best, to improve things and to create the football team in relation to my image and my football philosophy.”
• “If you have at home one Bentley and one Aston Martin, if you go all day everyday in the Bentley and leave the Aston Martin in the garage you are a bit stupid.”—Defending his squad rotation policy
• “When you just work tactically, in pure football sessions, you can see the way they can think football.”
• “When you play another team with the same qualities as you normally the best one wins.”
• “You can have the top stars to bring the attention, you can have the best stadium, you can have the best facilities, you can have the most beautiful project in terms of marketing and all this kind of thing. But if you don’t win… All the work these people are doing is forgotten.”
• “You have to win and especially, as I have, you have to win a trophy for the first time.”
• “You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don’t say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football. “
• “I’m not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don’t. Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
• “The negative side of football. The negative side of our society. People sometimes go to football and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.”
• “The only thing I would like is to have more control of the game in terms of possession.”
• “The only thing that we cannot control is our supporters.”
• “The Porto players were with me for two and a half years, they believed in me, in my methods, in the way we do it. The next day I go and a manager arrives who works completely differently.”
• “The way I use to develop an aerobic condition is three against three, man to man, in a square 20 metres by 20.”
• “When I face the media, maybe I don’t feel it now, here with you, because it’s a different sort of interview, but when I face the media before or after the game, I feel it as part of the game.”
• “When you go to the stadiums, the atmosphere is so beautiful that maybe you don’t feel so much the importance of the game.”
• “So I know all about the ups and downs of football, I know that one day I will be sacked.”
• “So if one day the result becomes 3-3, for me it doesn’t change my mind, because it’s football, it’s normal. What is not normal is that we haven’t been scoring enough goals playing such good football as we’ve been playing in the last few weeks.”
• “And I think because of the passion of every English player and every English supporter, and every English journalist for the game, most of the game is played with passion, love for football and instinct, but in football you also have to think.”
• “But I think it’s more normal for my team to have no success than it is to win two consecutive European cups.”
• “Especially when you play at home, you need a good atmosphere behind you.”
• “Facing the press is not easy, but because you have to go, you have to try to take a lot of positive things for yourself from these face-to-face meetings.”
• “I always feel that with a president, an owner—it depends on the structure of the club and the country—the players generally like to see him.”
• “I enjoy the work, I enjoy every minute of my professional life.”
• “I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.”
• “In England, when people go to football they just go to think about football. Nothing else. They enjoy every second of the game.”
• “In general terms we must think more about our football and not play by instinct.”
• “In the same way that I had to follow an Italian manager here, I can imagine that it was not easy for an Italian manager to follow me at Porto.”
• “There’s a history made up by each of us, that leads us to that final victory. It’s that history, in it’s entirety, that turns us into champions.”
• “To be the ultimate team, you must use your body and your mind. Draw up on the resources of your teammates. Choose your steps wisely and you will win. Remember only teams succeed.”—said on the show Mourinho Ultimate +10
• “The moral of the story is not to listen to those who tell you not to play the violin but stick to the tambourine.”

Jose Mourinho—The Special One

• “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
• “We have top players and, sorry if I’m arrogant, we have a top manager.”

Jose Mourinho—Before Chelsea

• “I am absolutely sure that we will be champions next season.”—having just moved to FC Porto, January 2002
• “In normal conditions, Porto will be the champion, in abnormal conditions, Porto will also be the champion”—in the middle of the Portuguese premier league season

General

• “It’s not the premiership, it’s not the FA cup, it’s not the champions league but its still a cup and we must respect it”—speaking about the Carling Cup.
• “My family love living in London. It is a fantastic city and a city such as this deserves to host the Olympic Games.”
• “If I made a mistake then I apologise. I am happy that I’m not going to jail because of that.”
• “Mr Roth has two ways out, apologise or it goes to court”—on being called the enemy of football
• “I don’t have a taste for having 10 cars.”
• “I have loved football since I can remember and I understand the evolution of football and the modern needs of football.”
• “It’s just a haircut.”—When questioned about his hair prior to the MLS All-stars vs. Chelsea game—August 2006
• “I think the best place to work in football is England.”
• “I was nine or 10 years old and my father was sacked on Christmas Day. He was a manager, the results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23. On Christmas Day, the telephone rang and he was sacked in the middle of our lunch.”
• “In five years I have never had a match where my team has had less possession than the opponents.”
• “So when they have Mourinho and Benitez joining the Premiership they should say it’s good for us, maybe these guys have something new to give.”

• “Sometimes in Portugal when you play away from home, the atmosphere is very hostile.”
• “I won’t hold back. What I did last season was the consequence of something. So, if the competition is absolutely normal without anything strange, I would love to be a good boy and to behave well.”
• “I believe in freedom of speech: you make a speech and I’ll give you your freedom.”
• “Would you phone the president of Ghana?”—Jose Mourinho when asked by a Ghanaian journalist if he ever phoned Roman Abramovich to see how he was.
• “From here each practice, each game, each minute of your social life must centre on the aim of being champions” “First-teamer will not be a correct word. I need all of you. You need each other. We are a TEAM.” (in a letter sent to the players)
• “When you have a father, ex-top player, and your dream is to be like him but you feel you couldn’t do it, your motivation comes from that point. I want to be really big in football. I feel I have some conditions to be a coach and manager. I start doing. I start loving it. I go to university and study sports science. This is a real passion and methodology.”—On his motivation for becoming a manager.
• ”The English press, if you understand their philosophy, it was very funny to play their game. Salt and pepper every day”

Jose Mourinho—Priceless

• “The crowd is magnificent, singing 'F**k off Mourinho!' and so on…”
• “I think you need me to say something that will stop these strange questions. You want me to say ‘we are going to be champions’? Well, we are going to be champions. You have something to write now. It doesn’t matter about the result against Blackburn or Manchester United, we will be champions.”—At a press conference, prior to it Chelsea drew their last two games and individuals started to question his teams early season confidence.
• “When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.”
• “And when I go to the press conference after the game, the game has not finished yet.”
• “Is Jose Mourinho the only one who can look at the fixtures and find something very strange?”
• “The dog is fine in Portugal—that big threat is away—you don’t have to worry about crime anymore.”—after the police questioned Jose Mourinho over proper health certification for his dog

Others on Jose Mourinho

• “Forget the mind games—I like him. I think he sees himself as the young gunslinger who has come into town to challenge the sheriff who has been around a while. He was certainly full of it, calling me “boss” and “big man” when we had our post-match drink.”—Sir Alex Ferguson
• “Mourinho has a very strong personality. He is also relatively young, which means he speaks the same language as the players. He’s the same person I met eight years ago. His success hasn’t changed him. He has a few good friends and he’s devoted to his family.”—Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes
• “He is a very good communicator and can speak to the players in their own language. He is also very well organized. His team allies structure with individual talent.”—UEFA Technical Director Andy Roxburgh
• “I don’t care what he says, I don’t listen. I guess when you’ve invested £500m it’s a fantastic season to win the League Cup. He’s welcome to his opinions, we care about Liverpool.”—Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive, talking to BBC Five Live after Liverpool beat Chelsea in the CL semi-final (2007)
• “I believe that was the most significant day of his life. The day he said to himself: I’m going to prove to my mother that I can make a living from football.” (After Mourinho quit just one day after he was enrolled in business school by his mother)—Neto (Portuguese Journalist)
• “Bobby and Louis were his real finishing school. His real education came on the front line”—Roxburgh (Scottish Football Association)
• “José told me he actually prepared his team to play for the silver goal. In other words, how would they play to retain the ball for that [first] 15-minute period. That’s what I call good coaching.” (after Porto’s win in the UEFA Cup final against Celtic)—Roxburgh (Scottish Football Association)
• “Usually, he gives many more messages, but he had to be careful because if he had been caught he would have been in trouble. ‘José prefers to be on the bench so he can have direct contact with the team. He wants everything—the training sessions, the match reports and the game itself—to be controlled.”—Boas (assistant)