Mourinho rates Premiership win over Champions League

Winning the Barclays Premiership will mean more to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho than his Champions League glory with Porto last season.

Mourinho is on course to guide Chelsea to a top-flight title for the first time since 1955 in his debut season in the English game.

Chelsea go into festive programme five points clear of nearest challengers Arsenal at the summit of the Premiership.

Leading the Londoners to the title at the end of the season will give him greater satisfaction than taking unfancied Porto all the way in the Champions League because Mourinho prefers to look forward rather than bask in glow from former glories.

Mourinho said: “I like to think that the next trophy is more important than the previous one.

“So the Champions League was fantastic and I know the work I did and how difficult it was. I know the surprise we created in Europe but it is done; it is finished.

“I am in England now at a club that wants to win. The club has not put pressure on me to win in my first season.

“I don’t feel I have a gun at my head to win the championship and the players are the same, they don’t feel that either. We just feel we can do it.

“I have great conditions. The working conditions and the facilities are fantastic. The players are good.

“The club gave me a few players that I asked for at the beginning of the season to try and make my work a bit more simple.

“I knew the profile of the players that would make it a bit more easier for me to create a team in relation to my image.

“I think to win the Premiership is always amazing, whether it is the first time, the fifth time, or the 10th time – or whether you are the manager in the first year or the 10th. It is really difficult to do, so if we do it, it will be fantastic.”

Mourinho has proven himself to be a shrewd operator on all levels of management from player motivation to tactics.

But even he cannot believe the success he has had in 2004.

After guiding Porto the Champions League glory, Mourinho’s arrival at Stamford Bridge promised great things.

But even he would accept he has surpassed all his own expectations in the opening six months of his first campaign in England.

Mourinho added: “The year before this one was also great for me. I won the Portuguese league, the Portuguese Cup, Super Cup and UEFA Cup.

“But the year 2004 has been fantastic with the Champions League, Portuguese Championship, the transfer to Chelsea and the first six months in which we qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League and topped the league.

“I consider myself to be a very fortunate man. That starts with my family. I have unbelievable fortune with my wife and children who are healthy and happy. That is the biggest fortune I have.

“After that in football, my career will show that I was a lucky man.

“But I don’t believe in luck without quality, study, without work or commitment, or without spending hours thinking about your job.

“But you do need to be in the right place at the right moment.”

Mourinho knows that delivering Chelsea their first title for 50 years will inevitably be undermined by the critics who will carp on about the millions of pounds splashed out on star players by its billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

But it is criticism that scarcely bothers him.

He said: “I can understand that. But it doesn’t bother me. Nobody wins alone in football.

“We are a team and everyone is important. Nobody is more important than anyone else. Mr Abramovich is very important in the project of course but after him there are a lot of other people.

“Peter Kenyon, the manager, assistants, players, medical staff – everybody in the club is important.”

“Nothing has surprised me about English football. What I liked before, I like even more now.

“The fantastic atmosphere, the full stadiums, the fair play and few teams ‘parking the bus’. Nearly all the teams play to win.

“The pace of the game is very high and things are difficult but it it is difficult for everyone in the league.

“The referees are also good and so is their philosophy. They don’t need to show cards and cards to control the game.

“I am very happy with my choice to come to England.”