Jose Mourinho admits he knew managerial bad times would come after chaotic week at Chelsea

Jose Mourinho will try to get Chelsea's season back on track tonight against Dynamo Kiev

JOSE MOURINHO looked around the utter chaos of this Chelsea week - the FA charges, the former club doctor suing him, rumours of dressing room rebellions and a disastrous run of results - and admitted he had known it would eventually come.

 

He had known, in fact, for 11 years.

Eleven years of unprecedented success which has seen league titles in four different countries and numerous other honours that have elevated him to the status of probably the most celebrated football manager in the world.

Now, the bad times, for the first time, have hit, and hit hard.

Tonight Mourinho's team have to beat Dynamo Kiev at Stamford Bridge to get their Champions League campaign back on track. On Saturday his team dare not lose at Stoke, or his second reign in charge could be over.

And said Mourinho: "Yesterday a friend sent me some quotes from my press conference after I won the Champions League final with Porto in May 2004. I'd completely forgotten them.

"Then, I said that, one day in my career, the bad results would come. And I said would face them with all the same honesty and dignity that I was facing them then as European champion.

"But 11 years later, I have resisted well the nature of my job, the nature of football.

 

"It has been 11 years waiting for this moment. It took time, but it has come at a moment when I'm stable and strong enough to face it."

Whether Mourinho is facing this crisis with quite the same 'dignity' is debatable, of course, with a season long record of skirmishes with football's authorities running as the sub plot to the dismal results - the latest being the £40,000 fine and stadium ban that could see him missing the Stoke game.

Not to mention the row which saw doctor Eva Carneiro leave and a series of snappy, sulky television interviews.

Asked if he could become a better coach if he survives this bleak period, Mourinho said: "I try to be better every day. If I'd only become a better coach because of bad results, then I'd be really bad because, in the last 15 years, I'd never have improved.

 

Mourinho watches Chelsea train ahead of their European clash

"This is new for me. That's why I'm good. I've not experienced this before but it has not affected my confidence.

"I will do what I have done all my life - study. In my case, when you reach my level, it's difficult to learn from others. You have to learn from yourself.

"How long do I have to turn this around? I have four years. In fact, three years and seven months, something like that."

Mourinho signed a new £10 million a year four year contract just before the start of the season, after winning his third league title with Chelsea in May.

The Chelsea manager dismissed accusations of mutiny within his squad after Saturday's defeat by Liverpool, and said: "It's a very sad accusation because you are accusing the players of dishonesty.

 

Mourinho and his staff discuss the loss to Liverpool on the Stamford Bridge pitch

"Of course they are still responding to me. They are giving their best every minute of every training session. We have a fantastic personal relationship, a very good professional relationship. No, they have not asked me to play another way.

"I know why the results have been bad. I can't tell you why, because we'll be here a long time. It's a combination of factors. Some of them I don't want to touch on."

Skipper John Terry insisted yesterday that Mourinho was an expert at protecting his players, and Arvelo Arbeloa, who played under the Special One at Real Madrid said he was like a bullet-proof vest for his players.

Mourinho said: "For my players I'll do everything. I always do. I'm not going to change. I'm happy to take more bullets."

But there was one more blow for the beleaguered Portuguese yesterday as striker Radamel Falcao was ruled out for three weeks with a muscle injury.