SPECIAL REPORT
Jose took Roman’s gold and inspired Chelsea’s first title triumph in 50 years
AS self-introductions go, it will never be beaten as long as the Premier League exists.
“We have top players and, sorry if I’m arrogant, we have a top manager. Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
So it proved. Ten months later, he was celebrating his first Premier League title, having lost just ONCE.
His tally of 29 wins was a record, his team conceded just 15 goals.
Jose Mourinho had changed the face of the Premier League.
The managerial ranks had enjoyed big characters for many years – Brian Clough, Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson – but for a foreign coach to announce himself in such a fashion was remarkable.
Most people knew of Mourinho, his charge along the Old Trafford touchline as Porto, eventual winners, eliminated Manchester United from the Champions League saw to that.
Most people could see he had a streak of selfconfidence that bordered on arrogance. Few expected the bravura performance of his first press conference.
Mourinho was a gamechanger, not least because he sent his profession’s wages into the players’ stratosphere.
Roman Abramovich paid him over £4million a year, making him easily the bestpaid manager in Europe.
It set the template for the modernday elite manager’s salary, rivalling the remuneration of the top players.
Mourinho (with Abramovich above) was as big a superstar as any of the collection of footballers assembled by the Russian owner’s millions.
Yet for a superstar, he was the arch-pragmatist.
Asked at that blockbuster first appearance what his ambitions were, he said his only one was to win the opening league game.
It was against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, Eidur Gudjohnsen scored early with a clever finish and Mourinho shut up shop. United, severely depleted by injuries and with Roy Keane having to play centre-half, were the aggressors, enjoyed the majority of possession, but never really looked like breaking down the Blues. It was a tactical masterclass and a taste of things to come. Mourinho made Chelsea almost impenetrable, keeping the most clean sheets in a Premier League season, but his side were hardly flamboyant.
Their success was founded on an outstanding defensive unit. If the partnership of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho was breached, keeper Petr Cech normally came to the rescue.
Frank Lampard, the only ever-present that season, finished as their top scorer with 13 Premier League goals.
It was fitting he scored both in the 2-0 win at Bolton (left) on the last day of April that secured Chelsea’s first title in 50 years.
What was remarkable about clinching the league on that day is that Mourinho, SIX MONTHS earlier, had earmarked the fixture as the one in which he could finalise triumph.
Special, indeed.
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