EPL: Mourinho starts with a swipe
and Manuel Pellegrini
inherited glory, snipes Jose
Mourinho
By Sam Cunningham for Daily Mail
22:28 15 Aug 2014, updated 07:31 16 Aug 2014
Wenger ended nine years without
silverware at Arsenal by winning the
FA Cup last season
Man City boss Pellegrini won the
Premier League and League Cup
double with a squad inherited from
Roberto Mancini
Mourinho considers that he has been
in the process of building his own
squad at Stamford Bridge
Jose Mourinho took a thinly veiled swipe at
two of his biggest title rivals — Manchester
City and Arsenal — ahead of the first day of
the Barclays Premier League season.
The Chelsea manager failed to win any
trophies in his first season back at the club
last year, while Arsene Wenger ended nine
years without silverware at Arsenal by
winning the FA Cup. When asked if he felt
under pressure to deliver, Mourinho replied:
‘Why? Some managers have 10 years to
win something.’
City’s Manuel Pellegrini won the Premier
League and League Cup double last year
with a squad inherited from Roberto
Mancini. Under the Italian they won the title,
the FA Cup and the Community Shield.
Mourinho added: ‘I don’t like to get clubs
developed by other managers before me, I
don’t like to arrive on time to collect the
fruit off their trees. I like to work. I like to
build. I don’t like easy jobs.’
Last season, Mourinho branded Wenger a
‘specialist in failure’ and rowed with
Pellegrini about which clubs had spent the
most money.
The Portuguese considers that he has been
in the process of building his own squad at
Stamford Bridge, not using the one handed
down by Rafael Benitez.
This summer Chelsea have brought in Diego
Costa for £32million and spent £16m on
Filipe Luis, both from Atletico Madrid,
signed Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona for
£30m and added Didier Drogba on a free
transfer. In total he has brought in 11 other
players on permanent deals and spent
close to £200m since he arrived in 2013.
VIDEO Scroll down to watch some of
Mourinho's biggest wind-ups from last
season
‘This is the second year of my project and I
am so happy with that,’ said Mourinho. ‘At
the end of the season you, the supporters
and the players will judge my work. And
most importantly my boss, my owner, my
board will judge.’
After talking down their chances last
season, Mourinho, who starts his campaign
against newly- promoted Burnley on
Monday, admits Chelsea are title
contenders. But he claims some managers
are given an easier ride than others when it
comes to rating success.
‘You don’t look with the same eyes on
different people, don’t measure people by
the same dimensions,’ he explained. ‘For
some to reach success is to achieve this
and for others to achieve success is to
achieve that. Because of my last 10 years
and Chelsea’s last 10 years I understand
why you always put the level high for
myself and Chelsea.
‘I really don’t care about it. I just care
about being myself, to work hard every day,
to have ambition to win the next game, it
doesn’t matter which competition or which
opponent. I want to win against Burnley,
that’s the first step.’
Dramatic Jose Mourinho: Yes, we are title
contenders!
Perhaps the toughest decision Mourinho
faced ahead of this new campaign was who
to pick as his No 1 goalkeeper: Thibaut
Courtois, who has spent three seasons on
loan at Atletico Madrid, or Petr Cech, who
has made the position his own since he
joined the club in June 2004, a day before
Mourinho was announced as manager for
his first spell. Mourinho considers both to
be in the top three goalkeepers in the world.
He appears to believe the 22-year-old
Belgian is finally ready to take over the
mantle from Cech, a decade his senior.
But Mourinho will not disrespect Cech by
playing him with second-string sides in
games of less importance and suggests
there is a still a role for him to play at the
club.
‘I must support the keeper who is not first
choice,’ he said. ‘Supporting him is not to
give him a Capital One Cup game. It is to
show him my trust when no one is
expecting that he plays. I did that with Cech
and Carlo Cudicini. I played Cudicini
against Real Betis in the Champions League
in the first game of the group, not in the
sixth when we had already qualified.
‘I also played him in one league match
when we were not champions, not after
being champions. The best way to show a
player you trust him is to play him when no
one expects it and in games where there
are responsibilities. With these two I can do
that.’
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