 |
| Mourinho is feeling the strain as Chelsea find themselves perilously close to the relegation zone |
FROM the high-pitched, almost girlish guffaws echoing back through the door one thing was clear - the old Jose Mourinho was finally back.
A few moments later and the Chelsea media officer came back into the press conference room and replaced the four tape recorders that Mourinho had surreptitiously swept off the desk in front of him and hid with his notes as he left following his usual pre-match briefing.
It was not so long ago that Mourinho was barely even talking to the press - giving unhelpful, monosyllabic grunts to anything but the most anodyne question. Now he was mischievously playing pranks on them.
He has already joked that previewing a Monday night match on a Friday at least gave him two whole days off without having to talk to the media.
Mourinho is certainly relaxed ahead of taking his bottom-half side to the young pretenders to their Premier League crown.
It would be easy to put that down to getting Champions League qualification in the bag with the win against Porto on Wednesday, easing just a little the pressure on Portuguese shoulders.
But even in the height of the supposedly "must-win" games, anybody who had the temerity to knock on the door of his tiny office in Stamford Bridge would have been surprised to find Mourinho lying flat out on his small black leather couch, eyes glued to the computer notebook perched on his chest as he caught up with the latest TV box set. The Bridge, of course, is on the watchlist, and The Wire.
"I like to be in my little office, lying, watching a movie on my iPad," he revealed. "I like TV series, I'm always waiting for a new episode to come.
"Sometimes the television is on - if we play at five o'clock and there is football before I want to see the other results.
"I hate it when the guy knocks on the door and tells you have to come to an interview. I like to be there.
"I'm not in the dressing room, I'm there, relaxed, waiting for the game. The players are warming up or in the dressing room. The assistants are taking care of the players, I have nothing to do in that period."
As it was Wednesday night his son was with him so the TV was off. Tonight is likely to be spent to a certain degree observing the formalities with Claudio Ranieri - a man he was somewhat disparaging of regarding his lack of trophies when they were rivals in the Italian league, but one he claims to have made his peace with given their shared Chelsea pedigree.
It was suggested that perhaps Ranieri was not taken seriously enough because his answers are always so jokey when he deals with the media.
"Why be unhappy, when you are top of the league at Leicester?" Mourinho shrugged. "It's difficult for me to smile, not for him."
It signalled Mourinho's solemn exit - solemn, at least, until the door was closed.
Post a Comment Blogger Facebook Disqus