Jose Mourinho attributes the strong bond he shares with Chelsea fans to the zeal and dedication he’s consistently demonstrated across his managerial tenure.
The veteran manager, now 61, has been rumored for a potential return to Chelsea’s helm after the team’s underwhelming performance this season under Mauricio Pochettino, which sees them at 11th in the Premier League standings with 10 defeats.
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A recent 2-2 stalemate against Brentford witnessed vocal discontent from the stands, with chants for Mourinho echoing around the stadium.
However, Mourinho, often dubbed the ‘Special One’, isn’t swayed by the chants. He regards the supporters’ calls as a testament to the fervor with which he’s championed Chelsea’s cause during his previous managerial stints, a sentiment he believes he’s extended to every club he’s managed.
Asked how it feels to hear Chelsea supporters chanting his name, Mourinho told Fabrizio Romano: ‘The first feeling is I always say that the best thing football has is the fans.
‘Because the fans don’t make money with football – they spend money with football! Sometimes they spend money that the family needs and they make sacrifices because of the passion for football and especially for the passion for their clubs.
‘So normally they are fair. When the club’s fans don’t like the players, don’t like the coach, for some reason, it’s not because beautiful eyes, it’s not because handsome guy. They love it, or they don’t love it, for some reason.
‘In my case, independent of results – of course I had the luck always to have something to celebrate, something for the fans to have a good memory of me – but I think something that they see is when you are committed to them.
‘And I’m always committed to my club and fans. Doesn’t matter which country, doesn’t matter which club.
‘So I think they have a feeling that I give everything and because of my personality, in the end I’m always going to be more than a coach.
‘In some club structures, then you have to be the coach, the technical director, the communications director, the image that defends the club, the players.
‘And that is something that people realise, but at the same time it’s something that the coach doesn’t like because, myself as a coach, what I want to be is a coach!
‘I think the ideal scenario is when the club has a structure that allows the coach to be the coach, on the pitch, on the training ground, in the dressing room, on the touchline. But be the coach. I was the coach at Inter, at Real Madrid, in my first spell at Chelsea, at Porto.
‘In some other clubs I was not the coach, so that is very difficult for a coach. Very difficult for a coach.
‘But I think my relationship with every football club where I’ve been working, with the fanbase, I think the base of everything is that they see I arrive, I wear the shirt and I fight for them.’
