Jose Mourinho Quotations

I am Jose Mourinho and I don't change. I arrive with all my qualities and my defects.

The only thing that we cannot control is our supporters.

I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.

Arsenal have won that advantage, nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies, they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

Facing the press is not easy, but because you have to go, you have to try to take a lot of positive things for yourself from these face-to-face meetings.

Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one.

So I know all about the ups and downs of football, I know that one day I will be sacked.

So if one day the result becomes 3-3, for me it doesn't change my mind, because it's football, it's normal. What is not normal is that we haven't been scoring enough goals playing such good football as we've been playing in the last few weeks.

The negative side of football. The negative side of our society. People sometimes go to football and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.

I hate to speak about individuals. Players don't win you trophies, teams win trophies, squads win trophies.

The moral of the story is not to listen to those who tell you not to play the violin but stick to the tambourine.

But I think it's more normal for my team to have no success than it is to win two consecutive European cups.

The world is so competitive, aggressive, consumive, selfish and during the time we spend here we must be all but that.

Sometimes you see beautiful people with no brains. Sometimes you have ugly people who are intelligent, like scientists.

Football is a game about feelings and intelligence.

When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.

I enjoy the work, I enjoy every minute of my professional life.

I was nine or 10 years old and my father was sacked on Christmas Day. He was a manager, the results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23. On Christmas Day, the telephone rang and he was sacked in the middle of our lunch.

And I think because of the passion of every English player and every English supporter, and every English journalist for the game, most of the game is played with passion, love for football and instinct, but in football you also have to think.

The team is completely close. Anything you say outside, there is no chance it will go inside. So the team is really strong and compact. We know what we want and how to achieve it on the pitch.

When you just work tactically, in pure football sessions, you can see the way they can think football.

The only thing I would like is to have more control of the game in terms of possession.

Look at the way teams play against Arsenal. They don't believe they can win. They don't believe.

I'm not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don't.

When I face the media, maybe I don't feel it now, here with you, because it's a different sort of interview, but when I face the media before or after the game, I feel it as part of the game.

I think the best place to work in football is England.

At the very least we should be given a bit of credit and a little bit of space, and maybe the media should think we could help them discover why English teams do not win European competitions.

You have to win and especially, as I have, you have to win a trophy for the first time.

Football is a more beautiful game in high definition.

Especially when you play at home, you need a good atmosphere behind you.

In five years I have never had a match where my team has had less possession than the opponents.

The Porto players were with me for two and a half years, they believed in me, in my methods, in the way we do it. The next day I go and a manager arrives who works completely differently.

You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don't say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.

I don't say we are a defensive team. I say we are a strong team in defensive terms, but at the same time lacking sufficient fluidity in attack because that will take time to come.

In the same way that I had to follow an Italian manager here, I can imagine that it was not easy for an Italian manager to follow me at Porto.

So when they have Mourinho and Benitez joining the Premiership they should say it's good for us, maybe these guys have something new to give.

I followed an Italian manager and it cannot be easy when you follow a manager who thinks very differently.

The way I use to develop an aerobic condition is three against three, man to man, in a square 20 metres by 20.

No, I'm not bitter. The reality is there were two matches where I couldn't work against Bayern Munich.

I always feel that with a president, an owner - it depends on the structure of the club and the country - the players generally like to see him.

He has a thigh injury and is not in the squad. Are they liars in the FA? That is the question for you. I have never disciplined Glen Johnson - he is a top professional.

I have rejected Juventus four times; it's a beautiful pussy that doesn't get me horny.

I think my Italy career is over - it's only right they begin a new era without me. Besides, you have to run a lot under Conte!

Messi is the best player in the history of football, and that’s why I prefer Barça over Real Madrid.

There is always a lot of debate but the reality is in six matches Liverpool have only beaten us once,

A direct red card must be a 101 percent red card and from the position I was it didn't look like that to me.

The best way to stop Messi is when you play with 11 men and then you can double mark him, one player to stay on him and the other to help out. If it is 11 against 10 then you have almost no chance of stopping him.

You have to work hard AND well. There are a lot of people who work hard but not well.

Look, I'm a coach, I'm not Harry Potter. He is magical, but in reality there is no magic. Magic is fiction and football is real.

We want to follow a dream, yes it's true, but it's one thing to follow a dream and another to follow an obsession...A dream is more pure than obsession. A dream is about pride.

If Messi is the best in the world, it's only because Cristiano is from another planet.

If a player is not performing, there are two ways of looking at it. You wait for performance to come, or maybe the moment has arrived where you have to change. I could go either way.

Like me or not, I am the only one who has won the world's three most important leagues. So, maybe instead of the 'Special One', people should start calling me the 'Only One'.

Chelsea are up there with best teams in the world,and let's hope United can join us in quarter-finals.

You win by effort, by commitment, by ambition, by quality, by expressing yourself individually but in the team context.

If you want me to rule out ever being Manchester United manager, I can't. Special clubs need special managers, so in theory it could work.

No club moves me from Chelsea until Chelsea wants me to move because I want to be where I am loved.

You are pushed to behave differently here, you don't really have a choice. If you cheat you have no chance of being admired. Even your own supporters will dislike you. So what do you do? Well, the way is not to be stupid, but not to cheat either. If there is a foul, you have to fall. I call it 'helping the referee to make a decision'. That's not cheating.

If at the end of the season I'm leaving the club, you have the right to come to me and say: 'Jose, you are a liar'

I am prepared. The more pressure there is, the stronger I am. In Portugal, we say the bigger the ship, the stronger the storm. Fortunately for me, I have always been in big ships. FC Porto was a very big ship in Portugal, Chelsea was also a big ship in England and Inter was a great ship in Italy. Now I'm at Real Madrid, which is considered the biggest ship on the planet.

It’s not important how we play. If you have a Ferrari and I have a small car, to beat you in a race I have to break your wheel or put sugar in your tank.

Ten years ago I also had a very difficult decision to make when we had (Carlo) Cudicini giving fantastic performances in Chelsea’s goal for many years. I had in my hands a 22-year-old goalkeeper I thought could be in Chelsea’s goals for years and years and years and this situation is quite similar.

The reality is he's a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware ... that is failure.

If Messi is the best on the planet, Ronaldo is the best in the universe.

To be the ultimate team, you must use your body and your mind. Draw up on the resources of your teammates. Choose your steps wisely and you will win. Remember, only teams succeed.

If I had wanted to be protected in a quiet job, I could have stayed at Porto. I would have been second, after God, in the eyes of the fans even if I had never won another thing.

People don't know about football. They think they know about it but they don't know much.

With all the stones being thrown against me you could build a monument!

Look at my haircut. I am ready for the war. The objective is to win the Premiershp. I don't want to dominate, to finish without defeat, record points or goals or consecutive wins. The Premiership is so difficult you cannot be focused on that. I just think about winning.

You don't have to love me. You don't even have to like me, but you will respect me.

As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal.

I won't say we have to win. I won't put that pressure. But we can't lose.

I remember the first time I saw him play. It was for a Sporting CP youth team. I told my assistant, 'There goes Van Basten's son.' Ronaldo had great technique. He stood out.

I don't have to be jealous of Barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the European Cup once. I have only been managing for five years and I have the same amount of Champions League trophies to my name.

Unhappy is a nice word.

I fell a bit in love with Celtic, because the atmosphere was amazing and the crowd was magnificent, the way they behaved with the Porto fans.

You can have the top stars to bring the attention, you can have the best stadium, you can have the best facilities, you can have the most beautiful project in terms of marketing and all this kind of thing. But if you don't win... All the work these people are doing is forgotten.

He is the best. The best in the world, yes. Probably the best ever. I saw Maradona a couple of times. I never saw Pele. But Cristiano is amazing. This man is the best... Cristiano is a goals machine. He is an incredible player. He is like Zidane, there will never be another Ronaldo.

Let slip the dogs of champions.

I studied Italian five hours a day for many months to ensure I could communicate with the players, media and fans. [Claudio] Ranieri had been in England for five years and still struggled to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good afternoon.'

To me, attacking football happens when Makelele gets the ball and passes it to the central defender who passes it to the right-back who comes forward and judges the situation. If he can do something he passes forward or runs with the ball, if not he gives it back to Makelele who builds the attack again. That is attacking football. In England attacking football is giving the ball to Makelele and having him hit it forward no matter what, even if everybody is marked.

One day he (Einstein) said that the only mechanical force more powerful than steam, electricity and atomic energy is will. That Alberto bloke was not stupid. With will you can achieve things.

Everybody can be smart.

Money does not guarantee success.

The title race is between two horses and a little horse that needs milk and needs to learn how to jump.

A great pianist doesn't run around the piano or do push ups with his fingers. To be great, he plays the piano. ...being a footballer is not about running, push-ups or physical work generally. The best way to be a great footballer is to play.

Instead of speaking about Real Madrid, Mr Wenger should speak about Arsenal and explain how he lost 2-0 against a team in the Champions League for the first time [Braga]. The history about the young kids is getting old now. Sagna, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Song, Nasri, Van Persie, Arshavin are not kids. They are all top players.

Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is poor people in the world trying to feed their families. There is no pressure in football

I know the questions will be around the money, the amount Chelsea had to spend to bring him here but that's the reality of modern football. Big teams only want big players, big players are in big clubs, big clubs want to keep their big players.

Would you phone the president of Ghana?

Fear is not a word in my football documentary.

We are on top at the moment but not because of the club's financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work.

I think boring is a team that plays at home and can not score a goal.

If Roman Abramovich helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt!

When I was at Porto my team also played in the UEFA Cup final against a Scottish side - but it was Celtic. I've never seen such emotional people. It was unbelievable!

My family love living in London. It is a fantastic city and a city such as this deserves to host the Olympic Games.

Drogba is a fighter. He is the kind of player I would say 'With you I could go to every war.'

Wenger has been Arsenal's coach for 15 years but he hasn't won even a Carling Cup for six years. Benitez hasn't won a league title in six years but they continue to keep him as Liverpool's coach. This is not the Italian mentality. To stay here I must continue winning and do well.

Football is a game based on emotion and intelligence. Anyone can be clever, the trick is not to think the other guy is stupid.

Four wins in four matches. It could not be better... the world is fantastic.