Petr Cech unveiled a clever strategy that maintained Chelsea players’ satisfaction during Jose Mourinho’s initial tenure at the club.
Mourinho proved to be a transformative force for Chelsea and the Premier League upon his arrival in English football in 2004.
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On the field, the Blues clinched two consecutive Premier League titles, while off the pitch, Mourinho captivated the English media with his witty remarks and controversial press conference statements.
During an appearance on Monday Night Football, Cech, who was Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper at the time, disclosed that Mourinho adeptly utilized press conferences to propagate narratives that would serve his team’s interests the most.
Cech explained: “People have this perception of Jose obviously from TV, and because of his press conferences.
“I hope he doesn’t mind me saying, he would sometimes come to our meeting and say, ‘Guys, this is what I want. This is what I really think. This is what we really do, but I’m going to go to the press conference and say this and that so don’t be surprised. It’s just a thing I want them to hear. I want them to have that kind of feeling about [us] because I want them to do this.’
“So sometimes what he did was really planned to take pressure off the team, to play mind games with the opponent. He was always a step ahead with this.”
Cech also lauded Mourinho’s abilities in managing people, noting that he fostered a culture of meritocracy at Chelsea.
“At the beginning as well, you could only have 16 players for a game,” Cech explained. “People don’t realise that until the 2006/07 season, you could only have 16 players on the team sheet, so there was huge competition.
“But he would always be one step ahead because he would say, ‘Okay, you’re not playing because we’re playing at home, we’re playing a team who will sit back and I don’t need you.’
“For example to [Claude] Makélélé he would say, ‘I don’t need a holding midfielder, who’s brilliant defensively when we’re going to have the ball at our feet for 90 per cent of the game. I don’t need you so have the time off. I’m going to take an extra striker.’
“But then he would say to players ‘You’re not [playing] because you don’t deserve to. You’re not training well and you didn’t play well last time. I’m going to give the chance to someone else.’
“So you knew exactly where you were and he set a standard that you never wanted to go below, and the players bought into it. In pre-season we started like that, the standard was really high, and we never dropped that standard.’”
