Jose Mourinho: This is the only business where people get excited if someone gets sacked



Jose Mourinho is under severe pressure at Chelsea



FOR a brief second, a door opened in the harsh, cold world of professional sport. Opened onto normal human feelings and emotions.

 

Perhaps it was because Jose Mourinho knew that the end of his days as Chelsea manager was looming - could in fact even end today. Perhaps that was what made the hard shell crack, the human side of the Special One emerge.

But perhaps not. Perhaps it was just warmth and human nature for once coming through in a theatre so often the scene of suspicion and confrontation.

Perhaps that was why yesterday, in a packed press room at Chelsea's Cobham training ground, Mourinho wondered why people take such delight in football managers being sacked, why if it was happening to one of the journalists facing him, he would be concerned, not joyous.

 

Perhaps it was why, for the first time, Mourinho opened up about the illness of his father, and the turmoil and dark moments that has caused him such private worry over the last year.

Felix, his father, who underwent brain surgery on the night Chelsea won 3-1 at Leicester last April to put them one win away from the title, and then had two small strokes.

Mourinho has made frequent trips back to Portugal to be at his bedside.

 

Things looked bleak at one point at the end of last season - but the 77-year-old has recovered remarkably well, and is now back at home with his family.

It was a quiet moment in stark contrast to a week of drama, tension, and controversy. Yet another week in this fraught Chelsea season.

After five defeats in 10 league games, rows over the departure of doctor Eva Carnerio, with the FA, with referees and with players, Mourinho is under pressure as never before. He could actually be sacked if his side lose badly to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool at lunchtime at Stamford Bridge.

Even if Chelsea win, Mourinho still faces perhaps his toughest task ever to turn this season around. The axe, from the normally not very patient owner Roman Abramovich, could still fall at any time.

But, said Mourinho, whose friend Brendan Rodgers was sacked to make way for Klopp this month, said: "What I'd like to understand is why people can be so excited and happy with the perspective of somebody losing his job.

 

"If a newspaper sacks twenty people, first of all I would be worried for the journalist. I promise you. And very disappointed even if I don't know the other 19 guys who were going to be sacked.

"This is the only job where people get excited. It's sad. Brendan almost won the Premier League. He was the manager of the season in 2014. And suddenly, he was sacked. It's strange. I don't belong to this world. I'm too emotional. I hate people losing jobs."

"They were a good team and they are a good team," he said. "They had a good manager and they have a good manager.

"They change some details in the tactical approach but that's the nature of the game."

Mourinho had walked into the press conference room grim-faced a minute early, with just a nod as a greeting. At first he was gruff, his answers mono-syllabic.

 

Mourinho was sympathetic towards Brendan Rodgers and his sacking from Liverpool

He did not want to talk about FA charges, or appeals.

The first smile came when talking about Klopp, another when he asked a journalist if he had read Mourinho's new book about his successes, after being asked if he had ever been in this situation before.

There was the usual snipe at the media, but he was warming, slowly.

When asked about his father, the Chelsea manager said: "He is winning his fight. He went to levels nobody expected. He's a bit of a fighter.

"He is making a fantastic recovery. He had brain surgery on the night we played Leicester. In the recovery, he had two other strokes. 

 

"He went to levels where it was very doubtful. But after a very difficult period, the recovery in the last few months is good. It's been good news for the last few months."

He joked: "He's almost ready to play."

But, insisted Mourinho: "The only impact it has had on me has been positive. The really negative impact was in the last period of last season, when everything happened. But the last few months, the evolution is amazing. I don't go to Portugal any more. My wife goes. She can't believe how strong he is. The family is happy.

"It hasn't made me stronger, because I'm strong anyway. I know what life is. I know that, in the end, what matters is family. And my family is top.

"The strength of a family allows you to focus on your job, even though your heart feels it. Focus on your duties. We had a normal life. We are a strong family."