Chelsea boss
Jose Mourinho vowed to make amends for Chelsea’s Champions League group stage
elimination last season by keeping his “eggs” in their “natural habit” this
term.
Six years to
the day since Mourinho last took charge of the Blues in the Champions League,
Chelsea host Swiss champions Basel on Wednesday in their opening Group E
fixture.
After
leaving Real Madrid this summer, Mourinho returned to Chelsea in June charged
with the task of nurturing a developing squad full of potential, and he appears
keen to play down expectations.
Asked what
his eggs are like now, in a reference to an analogy he made just before leaving
the club in 2007, Mourinho said: “Beautiful young eggs, eggs that need a mum,
in this case a dad, to take care of them, to keep them warm during the winter,
to bring the blankets and to work and improve them and one day we’ll arrive in
a moment when the weather changes, the sun rises, we break the eggs and the
eggs are ready to go for life at the top level.”
The
Portuguese’s first spell was brought to an end following a 1-1 draw at home to
Norway’s Rosenborg on September 18, 2007, a result that extended Chelsea’s
winless run to three matches after Mourinho delivered a cryptic analogy on the
eve of the match.
It turned
out to be a parting shot at owner Roman Abramovich and his recruitment policy,
when Mourinho said: “In the supermarket, you have eggs class one, class two,
class three. Some are more expensive than others and some give you better
omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there,
you have a problem.”
Last season
Chelsea infamously became the first holders to bow out of the Champions League
in the group stage.
However,
they responded by winning the Europa League – knocking off Wednesday’s
opponents in the semi-finals on the way to the title – in a competition
Mourinho has no interest in discovering this term.
The
Portuguese boss has not guided a team in the Europa League since winning the
competition with Porto in 2003, and he has no intention of resuming
acquaintances now.
“I want to
try to start the group phase by winning,” added Mourinho, who won the Champions
League with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.
“Last season
Chelsea went outside his natural habitat, which is the Champions League.
“Chelsea
went out to a competition that is not Chelsea’s competition. We don’t want to
do that again.
“It’s
important for a team of kids. It’s very, very important for them to play on the
big stage and the big stage is the Champions League.”
Winning the
European Cup was an obsession for Chelsea and the one title that eluded
Mourinho during his first stint in west London.
As Mourinho
prepares to launch another assault on Europe with the Blues, he believes Basel
will provide a tricky test, but he is unconcerned by the club’s worst start to
a Premier League season in a decade.
“We’ve lost
one match (at Everton last Saturday),” he said.
“It’s
Champions League we start tomorrow, zero matches, zero points.
“I have to
focus not in the past, I have to focus in the future.
“This is a
different situation. Now we have to build a team full of talented players
without the experience and without the football philosophy of working together
for a long time.
“No
obsession for me, no obsession for Chelsea, but I want to win for the third
time, I want Chelsea to win for the second time and this is the beginning of a
process with the Champions League.
“No dramas.
Calm and no pressure, no problem.”
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