Always a Blue’ – Mourinho’s affection for Chelseap

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Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said he “will always be a Blue” – but is ready to park his affection for the club which “helped me to become a bigger Jose” for 90 minutes. He returns to Stamford Bridge with his new club, Benfica, in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Chelsea won seven major trophies in Mourinho’s two spells in charge – the Premier League on three occasions, the FA Cup and three League Cups. Mourinho, 62, has also managed in the Premier League at Manchester United and Tottenham and began this season in charge of Turkish side Fenerbahce, who sacked him in August before he returned to former club Benfica this month. He has won two and drawn one of his first three games back at Benfica, the club where he began his managerial career in 2000.

“I will always be a Blue,” said Mourinho when asked about his relationship with Chelsea. “I am part of their history. They are part of my history. I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea, and they helped me to become a bigger Jose. “It will be my Chelsea before the start of the game and after the game but during the game it’s my Benfica and that’s all that matters. “When I say I am not a Blue, I am only speaking about the job I have to do tomorrow.”

Mourinho won the Champions League in 2004 with Porto and Inter Milan in 2010. He was Fenerbahce boss when they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Benfica in August in the play-off round to get into the Champions League, being dismissed two days later. But Benfica lost 3-2 at home to Azerbaijani side Qarabag in their first match in the league phase with Mourinho then replacing the sacked Bruno Lage.

Mourinho, whose career has also included spells at Real Madrid and Roma, said he did not expect to take another position in club football. “After 25 years [of coaching] I was expecting to go back to Portugal through the national team, not Benfica, and I’m back to Benfica so I don’t have a career project,” said Mourinho. “I don’t try to think what can happen or what cannot happen. “The important thing is giving everything. Now I’m in Benfica and very happy. It’s a big responsibility, even for a guy like me of years in football. Benfica is a huge responsibility for different reasons.”

Chelsea won the Club World Cup in the summer and the Conference League in May, with Mourinho calling them a “winning machine”. He added: “They won something before my time, then we started winning and kept winning.”