Jose Mourinho refuses to promise Chelsea fans Champions League football next year

Mourinho is under more pressure than he ever has been at Chelsea

JOSE MOURINHO has admitted that he cannot promise Champions League football for Chelsea next season.

 

Mourinho goes into a must-win game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Saturday: defeat could even see his reign at the club ended after a disastrous opening opening three months of the season.

Chelsea have won only one of their last seven games and on Tuesday crashed out of the Capital One Cup on penalties at Stoke. Mourinho’s team lie 15th in the Premier League going into tomorrow’s match, with 11 points from their first ten matches – and last season Manchester United needed 70 points for fourth place.

Mourinho said: “How do I deal with this situation – by working. I have no doubt we will get out of this situation. I cannot promise we will qualify for the Champions League.

 

“Is this a must win game? In my career every game is a must win. I don't always win, but every game is a must win.”

Mourinho will make a decision tomorrow morning on key striker Diego Costa, who damaged ribs in the defeat at Stoke, and winger Pedro, who was also injured.

The Chelsea manager will meet Liverpool managers Jurgen Klopp for the first time since the German knocked his Real Madrid team out of the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 2013.

 

Mourinho will take on a Jurgen Klopp fresh from his first victory as Liverpool manager

Klopp replaced Mourinho’s old friend Brendan Rodgers at Anfield, and Mourinho said: “Liverpool were a good team. They are a good team. They had good players. They have good players. They had a good manager. They have a new good manager. 

“You are speaking about top managers. When you change a top manager for an ordinary one... or a top one to another top one, the level is high. They know what to do. It's just a difference on the way they look at football.

 

“I'm not a close friend of Jurgen’s because football doesn't allow that, but he's a guy I like a lot. We have good relations. As a manager, his work speaks for itself. I consider him one of the top managers in the world.

“Chelsea is a big club. Liverpool is a big club. Manchester United is a super big club. Last season Liverpool won nothing and didn't qualify for the Champions League, and they are still a big club. Two years ago United didn't qualify for the Champions League, not even the Europa League, won nothing, and they are still a monster club.”