Jose Mourinho was appointed Chelsea manager in 2004 after guiding Porto to Champions League glory – and it was a clever interview tactic that helped him land the gig
Image: PA)
Jose Mourinho’s clever strategy helped him land the Chelsea job for the first time.
After his Champions League victory with Porto in 2004, the soon-to-be-dubbed Special One was chosen to replace Claudio Ranieri at Stamford Bridge. His achievements on the European stage had already made him a standout candidate.
However, it was his performance during his interview that left a lasting impression on Peter Kenyon. Less than a year after his own move from Manchester United, chief executive Kenyon was in charge of the process.
Reflecting on his initial encounter with Mourinho, he recalled how the Portuguese manager was already referring to Chelsea as “we”. When asked what set him apart, Kenyon told Rio Ferdinand Presents: “His preparation.
“The first meeting I had, he knew more about Chelsea players than we did. He knew how he would play, he knew where the gaps were. As we were interviewing him, he’s sort of saying ‘We’re a bit short in this position, I’d like to look at that one’. Very detailed.”
The decision quickly proved fruitful, with Mourinho securing the Blues’ first top-flight triumph in 50 years. And he continued to impress Kenyon with his work on the sideline.
“He was the best coach I’ve ever seen,” the 70-year-old added. “He played chess. So he knew as much about the competition – and if they made a substitute, look back in those days, he countered it with a substitute almost immediately.
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“He took the pressure off players, he took all the pressure. Which is what he still does. That was quite unique. [Sir] Alex [Ferguson] did that.”
Kenyon explained that upon his arrival at Chelsea in September 2003, there was a glaring gap in the squad’s experience – they hadn’t claimed silverware. Mourinho was brought in to instil that missing winning mentality.
He continued: “The reason we went for Jose is we had a good squad of players who’d never won anything and they didn’t know what winning was like. And one of the things that Alex said to me, and it’s always resonated, is ‘until a player’s won, he doesn’t know what it’s like to win’.
“Once you’ve won, you never want to lose. When I went into Chelsea, what I saw was, we’d got some good players, an amazing group in some ways, [but] a lot of them had not won.
“We had Ranieri – he was a good coach, but you could win one, get relegated next. What we wanted to do was build a sustainable, not win once, but win [regularly]. He was incredible.”
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