Chelsea touching greatness - Mourinho

Jose Mourinho told his players they are on the verge of greatness as he revealed lifting the Champions League with Chelsea would eclipse even last year’s success with Porto.

Mourinho made it clear that sentiment would not get in the way of achievement, warning he would be prepared to drop any player not in form – including even newly-crowned PFA Player of the Year John Terry and Frank Lampard.

However, there is precious little chance of that happening ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Liverpool.

Arjen Robben is ready to make his first club start for 11 weeks, while William Gallas is expected to return after being rested against Fulham, although Joe Cole is now an injury doubt.

Terry and Lampard will nevertheless be at the heart of Chelsea’s plans, with the club already with one hand on the Barclays Premiership trophy after their 3-1 weekend win against Fulham.

That victory came on the 50th anniversary of the only top-flight title success so far in the club’s history, with captain Roy Bentley having been acclaimed by the Stamford Bridge crowd at half-time.

Mourinho declared: “To win the championship in the first time in 50 years would be big history. In another 50 years’ time, nobody will forget the players, the manager or the staff who did it.”

The Chelsea boss nevertheless insisted despite having also won the Carling Cup, lifting the Champions League would be “something extra”.

He added: “It’s fantastic when you think about Chelsea Football Club in terms of its future.

“Winning the Premiership and reaching the Champions League semi-finals for a second consecutive season, it’s all going in the direction of success.”

Mourinho is, of course, accustomed to success, having lifted the Champions League with underdogs Porto last season along with the Portuguese league title.

However, while Chelsea have invested more than £200million in their squad, he insisted it was still harder to lift the prize as an English club.

“In Portugal, it’s easier to win the league. If in December, you have an five-point or six-point lead, you have the championship in your pocket,” he observed.

“So you go into the second part of the Champions League and can control your destiny better as you can rest players.

“When I played against Deportivo La Coruna in the semi-final, I played with 11 different players in the league game beforehand.

“Here, it’s more difficult as you cannot change a lot of players. Every team can come here and beat you. So you can’t make a big rotation or rest players the way that you can do in other countries.”

Mourinho, who accepts the final outcome of the Champions League will come down to “small details”, therefore rested only Gallas against Fulham.

But he is delighted to have the potential selection dilemma of whether to restore fit-again Robben to the side, even if Cole’s slight injury could sway that decision in the Dutchman’s favour.

“The players are never a problem, the only problem is when I don’t have them,” maintained Mourinho.

“To have Arjen Robben back, even if Joe Cole is good – and I hope he is - then we don’t have a problem. It’s just a choice that I have to make.

“I choose the team that I believe is the best. Of course, I have good feelings for certain players, who have done extraordinary well all season.

“But if players aren’t performing – even if it’s John Terry or Frank Lampard, the best players in the country at this moment – then I wouldn’t play them.

“That’s the law of football. Sometimes you can’t be emotional, you just have to make the right choices.