Woodward can adapt to football - Mourinho

Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho believes Clive Woodward’s lack of professional football experience need not stand in the way of the former England rugby boss forging a new career in the game.

Woodward is planning to obtain football coaching qualifications with the ultimate aim of moving into a new ball game after the Lions tour next year.

Mourinho believes there are advantages to be had from – like himself – never having been a professional.

He told the Press Association: “I’m not a rugby fan but I know Clive Woodward was successful in the Rugby World Cup. I don’t know him personally, or about his love for football or when he started to study football but there are advantages and disadvantages to not having been a professional footballer.

“If you have been a professional footballer you have the advantage of that experience but the disadvantage is that you have not had the time to study football.

“The other way around, if you are not a professional footballer you have the disadvantage of not having played but the advantage of studying football, to have a wider background and a more scientific approach to sport, or to go to university to study sports science.”

Mourinho started as an interpreter for Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon in 1992 before becoming involved with coaching after he followed him to Barcelona. He broke into football management in his Portuguese homeland with Uniao de Leiria in 2001 and within three years he had guided Porto to the peak of European football by winning the Champions League final last season.

Chelsea’s start under him has been impressive, matching Arsenal with four wins out of four, but as he prepares to take the side into the Champions League for the first time he admitted to some concern about the effect of the intensity of the game in the Premiership.

Speaking after UEFA’s elite club coaches forum in Nyon, Switzerland, Mourinho said: “For English teams it is more difficult because the [domestic] competition in this country is really hard. Sometimes you go into the Champions League not so ready for it as teams from other countries are.

“For example, we have to play away at Aston Villa on Saturday and then away against Paris St Germain on Tuesday. In other countries you don’t usually have such big domestic matches so they can be in a better condition for the Champions League, but we have to adapt to that.

“The Champions League is a completely different competition. The atmosphere, the referees, the philosophy of the other teams is different. The beautiful thing is we have to explore what we have got in our own philosophy and football culture and what they do not have.”

Newcastle’s dismissal of Robson has robbed Mourinho of the prospect of testing himself against his old mentor – “I don’t want to talk about that, it’s too sad, too sad,” he said – but other than that life in London could hardly have started better.

He added: “I’m enjoying it very much. I don’t have much of a social life because I don’t have much time for one but my family have settled down, they are happy, they are adapting and when they are happy it’s easier for me.

“In relation to my job at Chelsea and the way I’m spending my time every day I’m really happy because I’m doing what I love to do.

“Of course, one day we will lose points, draw or lose a match, but it’s not going to be the end of the world. The objective is to improve our game and stay at the top of the league. We have to keep going and fight for our target, which is to come first.”

Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson, his counterpart at Manchester United, have already exchanged psychological broadsides and the Chelsea coach continued in the same vein by insisting he was unconcerned by Wayne Rooney’s arrival at Old Trafford.

He said: “I’m not worried. Before Rooney they had a good squad and with Wayne Rooney the squad improves because they have another good player. But in terms of the team, only 11 can play.

“They have four fantastic strikers – Rooney, van Nistelrooy, Saha and Smith - but they cannot play with four. It’s a decision for Sir Alex, he will be happy with Wayne Rooney but for us he’s one opponent, it’s no different.

“We have all the players we wanted to buy. Steven Gerrard was the one player in the summer we would liked to have had but he decided to stay in Liverpool - and I wish him all the luck – but other than that we have all the players we wanted.”