http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?hlid=386942 Jose reflects on season as parade looms Saturday, May 13, 2006 Throughout the season, Jose Mourinho has given views on Chelsea's progress and standing in the world of football via his matchday programme notes and his press conferences. But it is only now, as the final curtain comes down on the championship season when he leaves Stamford Bridge at 1pm tomorrow (Sunday) for the victory parade, that he has chosen to give a detailed overview of the season as a whole. He has done this via an exclusive interview in the June edition of Chelsea magazine. As he looks back he believes outside factors made this season a different challenge. He has felt the impact of an approaching World Cup and a squad coming to terms with its status as reigning champions. “They can say no, and they can think no, but I can say yes,” Mourinho says on whether the World Cup affected players' performances during the second half of the season. “I work with them, I analyse their reactions and I can say yes. Not everybody, of course, everybody is different. No player is the same and no national team and coach works the same way. “Not every player has the same agent. Not every player is sponsored by the same brand, not every brand treats players the same way — pushing players before the World Cup. It has been very, very difficult. “I have done quite a few good things in my career, but this Premiership feels like it is the most difficult achievement of my career because of everything I have to work with.” Typical of the sharp, dry humour Mourinho often uses to illustrate or simplify an important point he wishes to get across, he suggests in the interview one unlikely way pre-World Cup syndrome could be avoided. “In four years' time, before the next World Cup, I want to manage a team at the bottom of the league, a team without internationals,” he jokes. “I want to stay with Chelsea for three more years and before the World Cup in South Africa go to a small team without internationals because this has been a very, very difficult season.” Some of those difficulties stemmed from Chelsea's early unassailable lead in the Premiership table, some from changing attitudes in the squad. He sees any changes that may happen over the summer as a natural process of evolution for his squad. “I think too early the situation became rosey. When you become like a champion, you have to play like a champion. I do believe that when we became like champions we stopped playing like champions. No pressure should be a help for better performances. It's a better chance to play great football. But it was exactly the opposite. “I also think titles can make groups different. For some people, titles give them more confidence, a different status, but they keep the same desire, ambition and hunger to get titles. But other people maybe don't react in the same way. “Even if you are in a successful situation you cannot stop. If you stop, with the evolution of time next season you get worse, or others get better and you are the same, so at the end of the day you are worse than them. We have to look internally with critical eyes. You have to choose points where you want to improve. I'm not speaking about players, I'm speaking about the club, myself, the staff, the medical staff and then the players as well.” Casting his eye further afield, the Chelsea magazine interview also sees the manager examine the Champions League last season. It’s a process he is asked to go through by UEFA each year as part of their elite coaches' forum to which he has been invited for the last few years. He is not being critical of UEFA because Chelsea are unlikely to be in the top seedings for 2006/7, but is offering an opinion on how the competition could improve itself. Though Barcelona, who Mourinho agrees have been the best team in Europe over the course of the season, can be counted as an exception, he discusses a trend for teams doing well domestically but underperforming in Europe. “It is the best competition in the world but you don't see the best clubs in the semi-finals. So for me, something is wrong, and what is wrong for me is that the knockouts come at such an early stage. “Also, the way the groups are made is wrong, the criteria to be seeded in the groups. Inter Milan, for example, get more coefficient points for the Champions League than us even though Chelsea are champions of England and Inter Milan are only third in Italy. They had to play the qualifiers. How can a team who has to qualify be in front of a team who goes straight into the group?” In the interview Mourinho talks on all these issues in greater detail as well as discussing the way the football side of Chelsea and the business side come together internally; the FA Cup; and his happiness in a Chelsea team maturing tactically. The June edition of Chelsea magazine is on sale from Monday and is available from all good newsagents priced ￡2.95. http://www.chelseafc.com/Images/-NEWS/MagJune06.jpg 封面 ※ 編輯: JamesCaesar 來自: 61.57.96.115 (05/23 20:01)