I have no doubt most successful

JOSE MOURINHO says he will never “wash the dirty linen” in public when he leaves a club.

But in the case of his departure from Chelsea 311 days ago he does not need to – because he gave it a pretty good airing before his sacking.

He had already caused a massive stir with the ‘doctorgate’ affair, had publicly accused his players of “betraying” him and claimed there were “rats” in the camp leaking information to the media.

Chelsea’s technical director Michael Emenalo revealed at the time that a “palpable discord with the players” had led to the dismissal of the most successful manager in the club’s history halfway through what had turned into a disastrous Premier League title defence.

But whatever Mourinho’s problems were with his underachieving squad, with the board and with Chelsea’s demanding owner Roman Abramovich, the fans were on his side.

They turned on the players – Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa in particular – and chanted “Stand Up for the Special One” in a toxic atmosphere against Sunderland at Stamford Bridge two days after his dismissal. Mourinho has not forgotten that or the good times he enjoyed in his two spells with Chelsea, which led to three league titles, three League Cups and the FA Cup.

And he struck an unusually diplomatic tone as he discussed his first return there since last December’s dramatic events.

“When some managers leave clubs they like to, I don’t know the right saying, but in Portuguese it is ‘wash the dirty clothes’,” he said. “It means speak about what happened. Go back and speak and speak and speak.

“I leave clubs with a very good feeling, the feeling of doing everything to succeed. I gave everything to the club.

“I don’t like to go back and speak especially about the bad things. I want to keep the good things – and at Chelsea I had so many good things, in terms of results, friends I have for life, an amazing empathy with the supporters who didn’t change their relationship with me because of last season and a couple of months of bad results.

“I keep these good memories. The things I don’t forget, I keep it, but I keep it to myself.”

He revealed he never enjoyed a close relationship with Abramovich but denied the painful episode had made him, at 53, a better manager.

“He was never my friend. We always had the relationship of owner-manager. A very respectful relationship. We were never friends. We were never close. He is just a person that I respected.

“That period came in a part of my career when I was already a grown man. I was already a stable manager, emotionally strong. I was not a kid. It didn’t happen in the first years of my career. It happened when I had so many years.

“I handled it in a positive way. I was lucky to have a big club like Manchester United who focused on my career and not on my last three months.

“I was lucky enough to have the chance to stay in the competition I most love and to stay in a big club like United, with a big project, a big challenge. Everything is positive.”

Mourinho has been back to Chelsea before as an opposition manager – with Inter Milan in a Champions League game after his first spell ended in 2007.

And, like then, he insists he will control his emotions, stay

I prefer to keep good memories