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Jose Mourinho believes that Chelsea have made progress this season, but his abiding memory will be of the moment he lost his unbeaten home record in the Premier League. |
Manchester City’s mid-week victory over Aston Villa confirmed that Chelsea will go into their final match of the campaign at Cardiff City tomorrow knowing that their title challenge is over.
It means that Mourinho will finish his first season back at Stamford Bridge empty-handed after his side exited the Champions League at the semi-final stage and fell short in the domestic cups.
The manager, though, believes the club has moved forward, despite the lack of silverware, although he admitted that this was not a season to celebrate given Chelsea’s record of success in recent years.
Asked to select his stand-out moment, Mourinho picked Sunderland’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge last month, which brought his 78-game unbeaten home league run with Chelsea to an end.
“There was an evolution in every competitive aspect,” Mourinho told a press conference on Friday.
“Last year we were out of the title race by November, and when Manchester United were champions, the distance was around 20 points.
“After that we reduced it a bit, but we were always a huge distance to the top of the table. This season we fought until it was mathematically impossible, so we maintained a competitive aspect.
“We couldn’t go through the group phase of the Champions League in the previous season and we were relegated to the Europa League (which Chelsea won). And this season we went to the semi-finals.
“So from a competitive aspect, it was an evolution. Some of the players had that experience of fighting for the title for the first time, and fighting for the Champions League, playing knockout phase, quarter-final and semi-final.”
Lampard ‘deserves statue’
But he added: “It’s not the kind of season that Chelsea celebrates, because that’s Chelsea’s nature and my nature.
“We’re not jumping for finishing third in such a difficult Premier League, and qualifying for the Champions League group phase. We’re not jumping and celebrating, but we knew when the season started that was very, very possible this was going to happen.
“For some teams, the third position is something that people live with in a happy way. We don’t. I don’t. That’s why, in this moment, we are thinking about next season.”
Despite several high points, it was Fabio Borini’s winning penalty for Sunderland on April 19 that stood out for Mourinho.
The decision to award a penalty sparked a furious reaction on the Chelsea bench, with assistant coach Rui Faria subsequently handed a six-game stadium after attempting to confront referee Mike Dean and Mourinho fined £10,000 ($16,900, 12,200 euros) for sarcastically praising the match officials.
“This season I lost for the first time a match at Stamford Bridge, losing with a goal—the second goal—and for me that’s the highlight,” Mourinho said. “That’s my overriding memory of the season, yes.”
Chelsea have yet to decide on the futures of club stalwarts Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry, who are all out of contract at the end of the season.
Both Terry and Lampard are fitness doubts for the trip to Cardiff, with Lampard having picked up an illness this week and Terry nursing a knock.
Mourinho hinted that he does not expect Lampard to leave in the close season, but said that the England man will deserve to be honoured when his Chelsea career finally comes to a close.
“There is nothing I can say (about Lampard’s future),” Mourinho said.
“On his career, his Chelsea career—not now, because he’s too young, but maybe in a few years he’ll have a statue where (former Chelsea striker) Peter Osgood is on the side. He’s one of the biggest players for this club.”
FIFA boss Blatter wants new term
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FIFA president Sepp Blatter yesterday strengthened expectations that he will soon announce his bid for a fifth term as the head of global football. |
“I want to do this, because things aren’t over yet. My mandate is running out, but my mission is not finished,” the 78-year-old was quoted as saying by the Swiss tabloid Blick.
Blatter is widely expected to announce his formal candidacy at the FIFA Congress, before the World Cup, in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.
In response to the new reports, FIFA stressed that Blatter’s plan was still to ask the 209 national associations in world body at the congress whether they want him to run again.
The election will be held in 2015. Blick said Blatter’s comments came in response to questions about his future during a debate it organised in Zurich.
Blatter has been FIFA’s president since 1998. He joined football’s governing body in 1975 and was its secretary general before succeeding Brazilian Joao Havelange as president.
Blatter has previously been guarded about his plans for a new term. In February, he told Swiss public broadcaster RTS that he “wouldn’t say no” to a new mandate.
“If I’m in good health, and I currently am, I don’t see why I should stop work, and especially the job of consolidating FIFA,” he said then.
The only candidate to have entered the race formally so far is Frenchman Jerome Champagne, an ex-diplomat and former secretary general of FIFA, who left the organisation in 2010.
Champagne, 55, has said that if his former boss Blatter enters the race, he will pull out.
Michel Platini, head of European governing body UEFA, who has crossed swords with Blatter over his running of FIFA, is another potential candidate.
The 58-year-old French football legend said recently that he was the only only person who can beat Blatter.
But Platini, in charge of UEFA since 2007, has still not said whether he will run in the election. Platini has said he will announce his decision in the second half of the year after seeing any reaction to Blatter’s decision.
World Cup worries downplayed
During the Blick debate, Blatter played down concerns about preparations for the World Cup in Brazil which runs from June 12 to July 13.
The Brazilian organisers have faced repeated criticism, and FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke this week said that the governing body had “been through hell” over the football showcase.
There have been nerve-wracking delays to the completion of stadiums, which forced FIFA to extend its deadline to hand over facilities, and concerns over social protest.
But Blatter insisted that he took things in his stride. “This is my tenth World Cup. My first was in 1978. Brazil is going to be something huge, really outstanding,” he said.
He reminded his audience that fears had reached fever pitch ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, notably over its reputation as a crime hotspot
“Four years ago, ahead of South Africa, people were saying how dangerous it would be at the World Cup. And nothing happened!” Blatter said. “Nothing is 100 percent ready before any World Cup,” he
added.