Jose Mourinho not motivated by Roberto Di Matteo: ‘I have nothing more to say’

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho reacts to a question at a news conference before their Champions League Group G soccer match against Schalke 04 in Duesseldorf November 24, 2014. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Jose Mourinho is not motivated by the thought of matching Roberto Di Matteo’s achievement of winning the Uefa Champions League with Chelsea.

Instead the Portuguese wants to set about building his next great team at Stamford Bridge, one that is capable of challenging for the trophy which has so far eluded him during his time in west London.

Having delivered European Cups whilst in charge at Porto and Inter Milan, Mourinho so far has not been able to repeat the feat with Chelsea - whose one and only success in the competition came under Di Matteo’s stewardship in 2012.

But this season has started promisingly for the Blues, who are unbeaten in all competitions and sit clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

Progression into the knockout stages of the Champions League can be attained with a victory over Di Matteo’s Schalke side in Gelsenkirchen tonight but Mourinho is not thinking about having to equal the Italian’s triumphs during his spell at Chelsea.

“Don’t ask me to speak about him,” said Mourinho when asked about Di Matteo.

“The history is the history - he was on the Chelsea bench when Chelsea won the Champions League and he is a historic name in this club, I have nothing more to say.

“My name is in the history of this club. A football club is made of many, many names not one or two names or one player or one manager.

“I did my history here and now I have the chance to make more history here and he was Chelsea manager and he did his history.”

Although winning Europe’s elite club competition is seen as a huge accolade, Mourinho refuses to pin his Chelsea legacy on delivering the title to the club and is keen to establish a new generation of players who can fight for trophies across the board.

“I want to win the next match, I want to make the team come up and the Champions League I say many, many times is not a consequence of a great work,” he said.

“Sometimes it is not. You can win the Champions League in the worst season. You can finish fifth and win the Champions League. Liverpool did and Chelsea too.

“So the Champions League is something that you can not say ‘this is the direction I want to go’. A knockout competition is something that always has a big percentage of unpredictability.

“I can do nothing to win it. I can only work to improve my team all the time, make a very good team like we are doing.

“Me working on the pitch, the board working at other levels to make a great team like we did in 2004/05/06.”

Mourinho has targeted victory in Germany to secure safe passage at the first opportunity and avoid tricky fixtures in amongst important domestic games in December - warning his players not to take qualification for granted.

The teams drew 1-1 at Stamford Bridge in the first round of fixtures before Di Matteo replaced Jens Keller as Schalke boss and even another draw on Tuesday would go a long way to keeping Mourinho on course to bring his first European Cup to Chelsea.

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