A major part of Jose Mourinho’s football personality is his media handling. The way he answers questions, the way he puts across things, the way he can be candid and even the ‘down-to-earthness’ in his replies are always a delight for the media to be in his press conferences. I always love reading his interviews or quotes or simply whatever he says. His tongue-in-cheek remarks and his sharp sense of humour is always good fun, though he can be very annoying for the rival fans.

He answers to the American media ahead of the friendlies in US and below is the transcript and my views on his answers. Before I forget, this interview was published in ChelseaFC.com and many thanks to them. And of course, my responses are copyrighted by BlueChampions.Com ;-)

1. On Chelsea’s style of play:

We were a top team with top quality. If somebody tells me in my first season when we played the whole season with Robben and Duff we were a boring team, I’d have to disagree completely. I think in my first season we were playing fantastic football. A little bit like Manchester United last season. We played very good football. Last season we had to play lots of 4-4-2 because we didn’t have players. We had to close games and our football last season was the football of survival. That’s the word I used a lot, you need to survive, keeping in the title race, to draw games to stay in the Champions League.

If you ask me now do we want to win the title back, yes we want to, and we want to improve our game. I don’t know a team with big victories without quality football. We work our 4-3-3 with wingers, and change 4-4-2 with a diamond to 4-4-2 with wingers, so the objective is to add width, speed and creativity to the game. There is a possibility of playing with two strikers, and one of them to play in between the lines. Kalou is not the man for that, he’s a striker, but Pizarro and Sheva are very intelligent in the way they move around, and either could be the man to come from behind. I hope not to play with a diamond unless I need to.

A very fair and honest opinion from his side. He very nicely put that the injuries, the resultant fight for survival and the 4-4-2 diamond was the reason for him to drop his successful 4-3-3. What he diplomatically did not mention is, the inclusion of Sheva and Ballack warranted a change in the formation. Also he did not have complete confidence or saw his confidence reduce in some of the players, which also restricted or shrunk the options available. Many of us have been truly hoping that we get back to the 04/05 set up which set the Premiership on fire. Here it is, sit back and enjoy. To the opponents - be afraid, be very afraid!

2. On meeting with Roman Abramovich:

Of course we are good. We have professional relations - he is the owner, I am the manager. I had a very good and long meeting with him in the summer, and I think it’s better to have one long and good meeting than ten short and bad. We had a very long meeting, and everything is cool. There are no doubts, I know what he is saying, I know what he feels, what he wants. He knows me as a person and manager, and the way I work.

Finally. The long awaited one-to-one discussion between the boss of the club and the boss of the team is over. Looks like the meeting was a resounding success. This, in fact, has given me immense pleasure than any of the signings this season did or will do. Still, I’m unable to find a picture featuring Jose and Roman, other than those old ones from the archives. It’d be nice to get one.

3. On his future:

I am not afraid of the future. What I want is to be happy, and there are places where you are when you want to leave as soon as you can, and there are places where you are when you want to stay a long time. For the first time in three years I bought a house in London. I want to stay, and if Chelsea want a change, they’d have made the change three weeks ago.

I am in my fourth season here and if I can carry on five, six, seven, eight years, then I will go on without any problem. I have no desire to change and try something different in Italy or Spain. I don’t have that desire. I want to stay - and if Chelsea had wanted to make a change, they would have done it by now.

Very reassuring. Typical Jose. I’d love to see him stay with Chelsea as long as he can, whether he wins or not. I don’t think even this kind of point blank statements from Jose will not stop Press from lining up successors for his job and reporting their secret meetings with Roman.

4. On manager security:

The insecurity is when you are afraid of the next step and what happens. I think when you speak about me and Wenger and Capello, we are never afraid of the future because we know that the next step will again be a positive step, a positive experience, a good club, a good league. Generally we know we always have good options. Capello doesn’t become bad overnight. He can be sacked in Madrid and in his next job, but for me the man is great. I admire him a lot. He did in one year what other people couldn’t do in three or four, and he must be very proud of himself and because I like him so much I’m so happy.

Cleverly sending messages to all that even though he wants to stay with Chelsea, he has a lot options outside Chelsea too. Also says that coaches of his quality would never feel insecure, which is true as they are always so many different challenges in the world of football management. A man of self-respect, I won’t be surprised to see him coach a mid-table team and make them qualify for champions league, if at all he’s to be sacked.

5. On Manchester United:

I feel the reason why we won the Cup Final is because we understand better than everyone else the way they play. For me, they play good attacking football like many teams do, and they kill people with their counter attack. In my opinion you must understand the way they play and you must adapt to their way of play. We were better than them three years ago, we were better than them two years ago. Last season they did better than us in the Premiership, we did better than them in the cups. There is a big difference, and I can imagine Manchester United without important players will be in big trouble. They have spent money this season buying big players. Nobody has a better squad than me though. I am very happy with my squad.

In all the matches between Chelsea and Man Utd, we pulled the strings, we dictated the course of the game and we simply did not see the Man Utd that smashed Bolton at the Reebok stadium. We drew twice and beat them once, which is clear indication that we had their measure. If Man Utd had lost the equivalent players in their line-up for the same lengths of period as it had happened in Chelsea, they would have struggled to reach 80 points, leave alone winning the title, which would have been out of question.

6. On managing in the USA:

If one of my kids wants to come to the US for a special university or course, for something the US can give them better than Europe, and if my kids want to do it in 15 years’ time then I would come. Probably if the first step is David Beckham, I believe some other important players will come at the end of their careers. Maybe they should make offers for some good coaches to instead of coming to help one specific team, like be the coach of Galaxy or Red Bull, they send the coaches to help all the league. I would come. I love the emotion and the tension of football in Europe but maybe in 15 years’ time yes.

Despite dodging this question cleverly, he could not avoid this headline ‘Jose Admits American Dream‘. He does not see a possibility even in the long term, which in my view is 10-15 years. The way Europe and US compare now in terms of football, I don’t think he would be truly challenged in the US the opportunities may not be enough for his appetite.

7. On David Beckham:

Beckham is the only one in this situation. I don’t know him personally but I can imagine the feeling he has. I think he can be successful here. Most of us, and other players, have two different worlds. One is the world of football, and one is the fame and celebrity. He looks very comfortable in both. I don’t know him and am nobody to judge the situation. I think he’s had a great career in football. He’s in the last part of his career, and I think he can be crucial to change football in the US and open doors for Europeans to come. He’s the perfect player to do it. If he can do it, he should come and do it. He can change the mentality around soccer in the US.

Chelsea’s arrival in California was low-key compared to the rousing welcome for this man David Beckham. I’m a fan of David - the footballer and the person. I second every word Jose says about Beckham, as that’s exactly what I feel about him.

8. On the Tevez saga:

I heard a lot about it, but I don’t know. I have a document to read and analyse and to ask for the help of specialists, because I don’t know the situation. Football shouldn’t still just be speaking about West Ham in the Premiership or not, or about can Manchester United buy him. I’m not observing the relegation fight and I don’t want to buy Tevez. I think for the good of football, the season has to start with the situation absolutely clean.

Now in black and white - Jose does not want to buy Tevez. Reasonable to expect that the issue surrounding Tevez and his connections with Don Corleone are all resolved before we start this season. If there is no clarity on this even on the 5th of August, the FA and the Premiership will be a fcuking joke in the eyes of the outside world. I don’t care if Man Utd buys Tevez, but let them buy him cleanly. Anyway, like Jose said, we have the best squad, so why bother?

So, this was his interview and my initial views/responses on his answers. If you’re reading this paragraph, by this time you should be lot more happy and relieved as I am. I’ve added serial numbers to the questions which would make it convenient for you to respond on, may be, each of them.

Only 11 introductions for a community as strong as this? Either a lot of you have stopped using the internet or you’re not aware of this page in bluechampions where you can introduce yourself. Make it fast. Catch you soon.

[tags]Chelsea, Man Utd, Jose Mourinho, Mourinho, Roman Abramovich, Abramovich, Premiership, Champions League, Tevez, Shevchenko, Ballack, David Beckham, Beckham, Interview [/tags]