Jose Mourinho insists he will receive a warm welcome from the Chelsea fans who once turned on him when the former Blues boss returns to Stamford Bridge with Benfica tonight.
Mourinho is back in west London for a Champions League group stage clash that has turned into a trip down memory lane.
The 62-year-old, who famously announced his arrival in the Premier League by labelling himself a ‘special one’, led Chelsea to three English titles, three League Cups and one FA Cup across two spells that etched him in the club’s history forever.
Fuelled by the financial backing of then owner Roman Abramovich, Mourinho turned Chelsea from underachievers to serial winners.
But those triumphs did not stop Chelsea fans chanting “you’re not special anymore” at Mourinho and jeering him when he returned as manager of Manchester United and then Tottenham.
Now in charge of Benfica after his recent sacking by Turkish club Fenerbahce, Mourinho started his pre-match press conference at Stamford Bridge by claiming he was “not a blue anymore”.
But aware that he risked more abuse from the stands on Tuesday, Mourinho quickly backtracked, saying he still loved the club and expected to be treated with affection by the fans that used to idolise him.
“Of course I will always be a Blue. I am part of their history and they are part of mine. I helped them become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me become a bigger Jose,” he told reporters.
“It was a happy marriage. It was a fantastic decision I made. The reason I came the second time is of course I was so happy the first time.
“When I say I am not a blue I am talking about the job I have to do tomorrow.
“I don’t think Chelsea fans will boo. At least on the street Chelsea fans are the ones that disturb me for autographs and pictures.”
Photos of Mourinho celebrating some of his greatest Chelsea moments were hung on the walls of the Ted Drake Suite to make the Portuguese coach feel at home.
It was a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Mourinho, who said: “There are not many clubs that do this. In many clubs it looks like there is a fear of what happened in the past.
“Sometimes it looks like they want to delete people who made history. It shows Chelsea is really a big club.”
Mourinho, who still has a family home close to Stamford Bridge, opted against piling pressure on Chelsea’s current boss Enzo Maresca, who has come under fire after successive defeats against Manchester United and Brighton this season.
Maresca led Chelsea to Champions League qualification and won the UEFA Conference League last season.
“There was a sad period where even me from the outside, I was putting some question marks. It looked like Chelsea lost their identity but what happened in the last season has put things back on track,” he said.
But Mourinho couldn’t resist pointing out his own achievements with Chelsea whenever the opportunity arose.
Asked if he still ranked himself as the best manager in Chelsea’s history, Mourinho said: “I am the biggest one until someone wins four (titles).
“Chelsea won something before my time. Then they stopped winning, and then my team kept winning.”
And in typically waspish fashion, he played down the two trophies won by Maresca.
“The Conference League is an easy competition for a big club to win. I did it with Roma. Champions League is much more difficult to win than the Club World Cup but Chelsea has the potential of course,” he said.
It is a decade since he lifted a league title but even if Mourinho’s managerial star is on the wane, he remains a box-office attraction.
After answering the last question of the press conference, Mourinho made a point of embracing several familiar faces among the British media.
He even posed for a selfie before wrapping a long-serving member of Chelsea’s media team in a warm embrace.
“You know how I am. I love it,” he said with a smirk before leaving the stage.
TODAY’S FIXTURES
Atalanta vs. Brugge
Kairat vs. Madrid
Atletico vs.Frankfurt
Bodø / Glimt vs. Tottenham
Chelsea vs. Benfica
Inter vs. Slavia Prague
Marseille vs. Ajax kick
Pafos vs. Bayern Munich
