Welch explains why Mourinho took the biscuit

The Demba Ba goal which put Chelsea through to the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday night might have dominated the back page headlines but on social media it was Trevor Welch’s post-match interview with Jose Mourinho which really took the biscuit.

Reaction on Twitter was widespread after the TV3 commentator brought his brief exchange with the Chelsea manager to an unusual conclusion by presenting him with a packet of custard creams, a gift which Mourinho accepted with a smile. Some Tweeters were amused, others thought the incident embarrassing but perhaps the majority were simply bewildered since, initially at least, only a few seemed to realise that the apparently inexplicable gift directly referenced another interview Welch had done with Mourinho at Stamford Bridge. That was the night four years ago, when ‘The Special One’ returned to west London with Inter Milan to knock his old club out of the Champions League and, at the start of his post-match interview with the TV3 man, a laughing Mourinho had been forced to apologise as the camera caught him trying to speak with his mouth full.

“I saw him taking custard creams out of his pocket as he came down the corridor,” Welch recalled of that exchange. “The interview was last minute, just before he got on the bus, and even though he had one in his mouth we had to go live straight away. He apologised. But I asked him if he liked custard creams and he said they were his favourites.”

Chelsea staff afterwards confirmed as much, telling Welch that a stash of custard creams was always kept in a cupboard for Mourinho at the Bridge.

“I was taking a gamble,” Welch conceded. “I stopped on the way to the airport in Cork on Tuesday morning to buy the custard creams, thinking that if it all went to plan and Chelsea got through, I’d have to take the opportunity to present him with them as a follow-up to the interview four years ago. And it worked a treat.

“The Uefa people were laughing and Mourinho’s PA guy, who goes everywhere with him, he’s normally stern and stony-faced, but he actually smiled. I know some people didn’t get the fact there was previous to it. But most people were positive.”