‘Special One’ rips into Chelsea ahead Stamford Bridge visit with Benfica

By Ed Emeanua

Some say he’s a talker; so long as the discourse is football and any other thing in life, Jose Mourinho always have something to say.

Whenever he isn’t talking, he’s either recently out of a job, ill, or the matter on the table is beneath the mundane. But, watch him closely. If his lips are moving, chances are; all of the above aren’t just the same.

Mourinho has lost jobs, found jobs, lost it again, and is currently employed. The newly hired gaffer of Benfica is very hale and hearty.

The self acclaimed ‘Special One’ has transverse over 100 seas, been there, seen that, and done that.

Mourinho was fired August 29 by Turkey giants Fenerbahce after just 14 rowdy months into the spell. Afterwards, all was quiet, just as always after he’d lost a job. As we all know, braggarts too need time to lick their wounds.

Soon after, Benfica extricated itself from ties with Bruno Lage only last week, and the recently unemployed Mourinho has spiritedly found a new home at Estádio da Luz following his recent termination by ‘Sarı Kanarya’ (Yellow Canary) early in the season. Now, the relative weeks of tranquility in between is all but over.

With new side Benfica, he’s now en-route Stamford Bridge for a Tuesday parley with Chelsea in which both sides feature in UEFA Champions League day 2 matchup for the season.

Above all else, nothing is particularly constraining the ‘Special One’s proclivity for voicing his world views and conjectures at this time.

Remarkable for his loquacious disposition, boastfulness, and whiff of arrogance now and then, usually arising from overestimation of his self virtue, ‘The Talker’ is heading for London again.

Now, that all the conditions have fallen in place for him, the loquacious braggadocio has something to say again.

Behold, his high-profile lips have regained their proclivity for prosaic motility. As usual, all ears are at now at risk again and must endure Mourinho’s monotone, albeit, with a tinge of captivating irony.

This time his subject is the opponent Chelsea, the new victim for the new Benfica boss’ prepossessing tongue, a foe he has well scouted.

Well scouted because he’d coached them twice, both times under the reign of one Roman Abramovich, that Mourinho now says those times were the good old days.

Good old days because Chelsea won trophies under Mourinho? Nah! The ‘Special One is adamant those were the golden era of the ‘Blues’ movement, since the club was then on course and got the wheels always turning.

Now, the new Chelsea are he says, are hopelessly lost like a nomad in the desert since Abramovich’s exit, he thinks. Oh Mourinho!

Hear what he further said. “Chelsea. (Roman) Abramovich’s Chelsea, my Chelsea, the Chelsea we built and lasted for many years was a winning club,” Mourinho said, via Metro.

“It was winning everything with me and then with Ancelotti, with Conte and with Tuchel.”

“Chelsea was a winning machine. Every season, Chelsea was winning. Then there was a big change with crazy investment and a period of a few years where it looked like they lost direction, with too many players, too many millions, accumulation of players and a team without a clear philosophy.

“For a couple of years, it was hard. For one that loves the club, it was hard.”

However, the ‘Special One said he sees a light in the tunnel of Stamford Bridge with the coming of current Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, who’s into his second season at the helms. Mourinho singled out Maresca for his methodical approach and laurels he’s won at Stamford Bridge.

“Maresca arrived and step by step, the puzzle was made,” Mourinho said.

“Even the Conference League is a fantastic competition for a team like that to win. It gives you that first cup and the philosophy and the culture of the club for winning. … Then they go to the States and come back with the big badge on the chest so now they have a good, good team.’

Mourinho himself has put some wins on the board at Benfica this early in his tenure with ‘As Águias’ (The Eagles), winning at AVS and Rio Ave, ahead of defeating Gil Vicente 2-1 just over the weekend.

The Benfica gaffer will roll out his winning side against Chelsea tomorrow, the same team he can’t hide his loving emotion when discussing their merits and deficiencies.

Make no mistake; Mourinho is not coming to West London just to admire the bridge at Chelsea. Believe it or not, he’s there to win.

Especially in a competition like the Champions League where victory, any victory for that matter, sends manager and players into ecstasy and dispatches fans into exhilaration, beating Chelsea in this competition, at this stage, will be special for Mourinho.

At the same time, defeating the new Club World Champions, of the caliber of the Blues at Stamford Bridge of all places, will be rather phenomenal.

Mourinho has won the UCL Europe’s biggest club prize, with Porto and as such, knows how continental victory tastes. Equally, he has the pedigree to win this game for Benfica and should.