Mourinho yearns for England homecoming
Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho underlines desire to return to Premier League during career
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Saturday, 14, Nov 2009 12:34
By Matthew Champion
Jose Mourinho has given his strongest indication yet he wants to return to the Premier League with the words "England is my country... and my football is English football".
The Portuguese spent three years at Chelsea, winning two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and two Carling Cups.
After leaving by mutual consent in 2007 he joined Inter Milan the following season, going on to win the Serie A title in his first year in charge - his fifth league title over seven seasons across three countries.
But the former Porto coach told the Times that while he was happy at the San Siro he did not see his long-term future anywhere other than England.
In an interview that will alert the owners of Manchester United - who will have to one day find a replacement for 67-year-old Sir Alex Ferguson - and Liverpool - who are labouring under Rafa Benitez - the 46-year-old said he was open to almost any top Premier League side apart from Chelsea, where he could not expect a stability to remain in charge for an extended period of time.
"Clearly it is unrealistic to expect to stay at a club as long as Sir Alex, but I am ready for the next phase of my career," Mourinho said. "I want to work with a different perspective.
"At Porto, my objective was to win to earn the right to go abroad. At Chelsea, my ambition was to create a bit of history. But I always knew Chelsea lacked the normal English culture of stability."
The Portuguese explained he was "never under any illusions" at Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, describing his role as "not a job for ten years"
"My role was to give this man what he wanted - victory - knowing that, sooner or later, my time would finish, because there were too many things going on around me," he continued.
"In Italy, I was coming to the motherland of tactics, the country of catenaccio [door-bolt in Italian] and defensive football. The objective was to win not only in a third different league but a place where they say foreign coaches have had little success. But the time will come for stability.
"I love Inter and would love to build for the future here. In fact, I am doing it now, because I am not a selfish coach and I'm thinking about the future in terms of youth development and the age structure of my first team - but Italy is not the country for this.
"England is the country. And my football is English football."
Mourinho's Inter currently top Serie A with 29 points from 12 games. They top Champions League F with one win and three draws from their first four games, but defeat away in Barcelona next week could see them facing an uphill struggle to qualify for the knockout stages.