Season 2024/ 2025

15. “Why have Chelsea suffered so much since I left? Because I left.” –  On Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea sacking in 2009.

14. “It’s like having a blanket that is too small for the bed. You pull the blanket up to keep your chest warm and your feet stick out. I cannot buy a bigger blanket because the supermarket is closed. But the blanket is made of cashmere.” – on a Chelsea injury crisis

13. “Young players are like melons. Only when you open and taste the melon are you 100% sure that the melon is good.”

12. “I have nothing, nothing to say. Nothing, nothing to say. Nothing to say, I have nothing to say. Nothing to say, I am so sorry, I have nothing to say.” –  After a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, Mourinho wasn’t particularly open to questioning, responding to four separate questions with the same answer.

11. “It’s not important how we play. If you have a Ferrari and I have a small car, to beat you in a race I have to break your wheel or put sugar in your tank.” – Inter Milan didn’t play the most attractive football, but Mourinho was doing what needed to be done. At least that’s what he said…

10. “For me, pressure is bird flu. I’m feeling a lot of pressure with the problem in Scotland. It’s not fun and I’m more scared of it than football.”

9. “You can say the linesman’s scored. It was a goal coming from the moon or from the Anfield Road stands.” – The famous ‘ghost goal’ scored by Liverpool in the 2005 Champions League semi-final.

8. “Lots of people on TV, but nobody a Chelsea man: Carragher, Liverpool; Thompson, Liverpool; Redknapp, Liverpool. Lawrenson, Liverpool; Hansen, Liverpool. We don’t have one. When I retire, 75 years old, I go as a pundit to defend Chelsea on television.” – Mourinho is not a huge fan of football pundits in England.

7. “The only club where her husband replaced me was at Inter Milan, where in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time. And for her also to think about me and to speak about me, I think the lady needs to occupy her time, and if she takes care of her husband’s diet she will have less time to speak about me.” – Responding to comments made by Rafael Benitez’s wife.

6. “It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs – no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and 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.” – Mourinho describing his lack of transfer funds in 2007.

5. “He must really think I’m a great guy. He must think that, because otherwise He would not have given me so much. I have a great family. I work in a place where I’ve always dreamt of working. He has helped me out so much that He must have a very high opinion of me.” – On God.

4. “If he is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn’t fail many times. Eight years without silverware, that’s failure. He’s a specialist in failure. If I do that in Chelsea, eight years, I leave and don’t come back.” – Mourinho and Arsene Wenger never saw eye-to-eye, with Mourinho also saying that Wenger is “one of these people who is a voyeur.”

3. “The circumstances are difficult for us with the new football rules that we have to face. It is not possible to have a penalty against Manchester United and it is not possible to have penalties in favour of Chelsea. It is not a conspiracy, it is fact. I speak facts. If not, I need big glasses.” – Mourinho may see things slightly differently now.

2. “If they made a film of my life, I think they should get George Clooney to play me. He’s a fantastic actor and my wife thinks he would be ideal.”

1. “I have top players and, I’m sorry, we have a top manager. Please do not call me arrogant because what I say is true. I’m European champion, I’m not one out of the bottle, I think I’m a special one.” – On taking over at Chelsea in 2004. And so ‘The Special One’ was born.