Behind calm exterior, Jose on a special mission

As calm about it all as Jose Mourinho genuinely came across yesterday, there can be no disputing the stakes when you properly consider it.

In essence, it’s the achievement that would bring his entire career together and could confirm him as the greatest ever.

While the Portuguese coach again repeated that he feels “home” at Stamford Bridge, he also made a point of stating how Chelsea were back in their “natural habitat” — the Champions League.

Whether their stadium can finally find a lasting place for a European Cup Mourinho himself has brought home could be the key to his entire second spell at the club.

The competition has shaped his career more than most. Porto’s 2003-04 victory over Manchester United properly announced him, the victory in that final brought the move to Chelsea while the second Champions League with Inter made his special status as a manager truly unquestionable.

Now, he is one of only three coaches in this season’s competition — along with Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti — that stand on the brink of Bob Paisley’s record of three victories.

What would further mark Mourinho apart, however, is that he would become the first to win it with three different clubs.

Of course, he could have already achieved that landmark had he won it with Chelsea between 2004 and 2007. Mourinho insists he does not feel he has “unfinished business” and certainly didn’t envy Roberto Di Matteo ending the club’s Champions League drought in 2012. By contrast, he believes his own colourful history in the competition contributed to that win.

“For me, the important thing is that Chelsea had a dream, and the dream came true.

“The other day I was looking at Real Madrid’s team... I’m not there, but I left something there. With Chelsea it’s a bit the same.

“My feeling was that Chelsea, not specifically in that year but all over the years, the club, the players and the owner and the fans, deserved to win it one day. It’s a hard history before. It started in my time with the semi-final we lost [against Liverpool in 2005] and it was not a goal... after that comes the beautiful moment with the game with Barcelona [in 2009] with the ref from Norway. A semi-final hard to take.

“So when Chelsea won the Champions League they probably did it in the year nobody was expecting them to, but the fact they did, they made justice for the club and for the players who did so much to touch that cup.”

Mourinho can’t deny that he “dreams” of touching it a third time, but insists it is not an unhealthy obsession. Some might feel he is deliberately downplaying all of this, especially since the Spanish press reported that he used to claim seat 10D for Real Madrid’s Champions League flights — to represent their anticipated 10th trophy.

“I have no obsessions in football. I don’t like my teams to have them. One thing is objective, another thing is obsessions. The first objective of this team has to be a process... a philosophy, an identity, a style of play.”

That is all the more relevant given Mourinho’s points about the past and the future. Whereas his first Chelsea team were undeniably ready to win the Champions League and were probably the best team on the continent in 2005, this is a young one approaching from a different perspective. It brought Mourinho full circle.

Towards the end of his press conference for tonight’s game against Basle, Mourinho was asked about his comments ahead of the last game of his previous spell, which took place in the Champions League against Rosenborg. Then, critical of Roman Abramovich’s refusal to invest, he said “when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem”.

Now? “Beautiful, young eggs!” Mourinho laughed. “One day the moment will arrive when the weather changes, the sun rises, you break the eggs and the eggs are ready to go for life at the top level.”

Mourinho will hope it also finally brings his true crowning moment at Chelsea.