Mourinho eager to face Chelsea ahead of Benfica return as he wants to show his former employers ‘I am here’.
Mourinho wants to show Chelsea ‘I am here’ on return.
There was amazement in the changing room.
Jose Mourinho visited each Chelsea player to bid them farewell, with some hiding their faces and others in tears.
Naturally, not everyone remembers Mourinho’s second stint at Chelsea or, in fact, some of the clubs he has coached subsequently with similar fondness.
On Tuesday, however, when Mourinho returns his new team to Stamford Bridge for the Champions League, Benfica will hope the atmosphere returns.
According to close friend Jose Peseiro, the 62-year-old won’t be satisfied with simply sitting at the top table in Europe once more.
“He wants to go and beat Chelsea to show everyone ‘I am here’,” he said.
When Fenerbahce fired Mourinho last month, such a possibility seemed far off.
But before even Mourinho could have predicted it, a surprise opportunity presented itself from the team that beat his old team in the Champions League qualifying round.
Mourinho was prepared to face another political maelstrom in Lisbon, 25 years after his first brief stint at Benfica, which began with one president and concluded with another.
However, this Mourinho is not the same as the relative inexperienced manager who had never run a team before in 2000.
Jose Morais, his assistant at Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan, is one of the few people who truly understands that.
At Porto, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and Roma, Mourinho went on to win 26 major titles.
However, it has been ten years since he won a league championship. More than five years have passed since he managed a Champions League game. Additionally, he is recovering from a period of injury with Fenerbahce.
Is it possible for him to go back in time?