I Once Hid In A Laundry Basket – Jose Mourinho

After the ‘spygate’ scandal at Leeds, Mourinho confirmed he had hidden in a laundry basket in 2005 for Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich after receiving a two-game touchline ban.

 

“I need to be with my players and I did it yeah,” he said.

 

“I go to the dressing room during the day so I was there from midday and the game is seven o’clock. I just want to be in the dressing room when the players arrive. I went there and nobody saw me. The problem was to leave after. And the kit man put me in the basket. It was a little bit open so I could breathe.

 

“But when he was taking it outside the dressing room, the Uefa guys were following and desperate to find me so he closed the box and I couldn’t breathe. When he opened the box I was dying.”

 

‘One player asked me not to criticise him in training’

 

At various points Mourinho was critical of winger Anthony Martial, full-back Luke Shaw and striker Marcus Rashford, who has been re-born under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

 

But he outlined how one player asked not to be criticised in training which Mourinho thought was a sign of modern players being too sensitive.

 

“Recently, when I was coaching one player he told me and he was very polite, ‘please when you criticise me can you do it in private’,” he said.

“I told him why? ‘Because of my stature, in front of the other players when you criticise me I don’t feel comfortable’.

 

“Nowadays you have to be very smart in the way you read your players, and try to create the best situation.”

 

He contrasted the situation with that of former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, with whom he worked at Stamford Bridge when he twice won the Premier League in 2005 and 2006.

 

“With Drogba, he is the kind of player that the more pressure from the manager, the more quality in his performance,” Mourinho added.

“There are some players where if you squeeze them they answer in the best way.

“There are other mentalities and personalities and the reaction is not the best. They were brought up in a different way, an easier social life, coming to the top level of football, everything came too easy to them.

“Some of them they don’t react in the same way. Certain moments, some strong public words, some of them have some risk.”

 

Mourinho said that his philosophy depended on the team he was managing, but rejected accusations that his sides were defensive or ‘parked the bus’.

 

He cited the football played during his first stint at Chelsea and said: “You know when the [parking the bus] reputation started?

“It was when I was champions with Real Madrid with 100 points and 106 goals – the record of Spanish football.”

 

He also hinted that he was not as well supported as Guardiola and Klopp.

 

That is despite spending a then world record transfer fee of £89m for Paul Pogba and £75m on striker Romelu Lukaku. In all Mourinho spent £400m on players during his time in charge at Old Trafford.

 

He said: “At Man City in the first season Guardiola was not a champion. In the second season Pep made great decisions but those that were supported. In the same summer he sold four full-backs and bought four backs.

 

“At Liverpool how many players were there before Jurgen Klopp arrived? If you are a manager and you [are able] to choose the players to follow your idea, that’s one thing. The other thing is when you are not able to do that.”

 

Mourinho also confirmed that has rejected 3 job offers since being sacked by Manchester United.