Jose message to old pals
Last Updated: 24th April 2012
THE ghost of Jose Mourinho never goes away.
The Special One left Stamford Bridge nearly five years ago.
But still his name features large when it comes to Chelsea’s Champions League fate.
Sitting in the Nou Camp last night, keeper Petr Cech joked when asked if the team had had a briefing from Mourinho: “Yeah, we had a tactical meeting a few hours ago. He showed us the whole file and we tried to get it down.”
But there may have been more than a kernel of truth in his quip.
For SunSport has learned that Mourinho sent good luck texts to his old-boys Cech, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.
And Rui Faria, one of Mourinho’s henchman who also worked at Chelsea, gave assistant boss Steve Holland a tactical analysis of how Real got between Barca’s defenders to win El Clasico on Saturday to virtually tie up La Liga title.
Mourinho is always lurking somewhere in the background.
He could be waiting for Chelsea in the final itself should Roberto Di Matteo’s side pull off a shock and eliminate Barcelona tonight and Jose’s Real overcome Bayern Munich tomorrow.
He told his former players: “You can do it and so can we. See you in Munich.”
With a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Chelsea are convinced they can fulfil Mourinho’s prophecy.
For Cech it would be one step closer to the dream which has eluded him since he joined the club in 2004.
Five times he has reached the semi-final and once he lost a final on penalties to Manchester United.
For him, John Terry, Lampard and Drogba, this opportunity may never come again.
Cech said: “I’ve been hoping for the last eight years it would be the year I’d have a chance to win the Champions League.
“Here we are again, in the semi-final. We always try to reach the final and win the competition.
“Many times we were close and if we have a fantastic game we’ll have a chance.”
Cech admitted that it was hard to believe Chelsea would be in an FA Cup final and one game away from the Champions League final when they were going through the tough times earlier in the season under Andre Villas-Boas.
Since Di Matteo took over they have won 10, drawn three and lost one.
One of their greatest performances was overcoming the 3-1 first leg deficit suffered in Naples to make the last eight. Cech said: “You can see how everything changes quickly in football.
“After the Napoli game, everybody was writing us off. Yet here we are, in Camp Nou, with 90 minutes to reach the final.
“It’s great to be in a position like that but in football it can go from bad to great and great to bad in a split second.
“We’re confident we can go through. OK Chelsea were lucky in the first game against Barcelona but I still think we played a very good game. It was a very tactical contest.
“But Barcelona are the favourites for this game.”
Barca have not beaten Chelsea in their last six games and the great Lionel Messi has not scored against them in seven.
Di Matteo though does not think Chelsea can get through by shutting up shop and hoping for a 0-0. He said: “I do think we’ll have to try and score a goal. That would give us a greater chance. I think it’ll be difficult just playing for a goalless draw.”
But it was not long before that man Mourinho’s name cropped up again.
Had Di Matteo watched El Clasico and seen how Mourinho beat Barca in the semi-final when he was manager of Inter Milan?
“You cannot take another team and another manager, and put it with the team we have,” said the Italian.
“We have to look at the players who will play and try to get the best out of them.”
You get the feeling Di Matteo would get an extra kick out of winning this trophy and doing something that You Know Who never achieved at Chelsea.
Then maybe, just maybe, the ghost of Mourinho will finally be laid to rest.
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