‘I am a kid at 52 years old’: The year’s best lines from Chelsea’s loquacious Jose Mourinho

An examination of some of the best quotes this season from Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, from Eden Hazard's £100-million-each legs to football's beautiful grass carpeted future.

Jose Mourinho shown celebrating the League Cup in March with Chelsea. Andrew Coulridge / Action Images / Reuters / March 1, 2015

The best quotes of this season from Jose Mourinho, manager of new Premier League champions Chelsea:

Chelsea fans

“At this moment it’s difficult to play at home because playing here is like playing in an empty stadium. When we scored was when I realised, ‘Woah, the stadium is full. Good’.”

– Criticising Chelsea’s supporters for the lack of atmosphere during a 2-1 home win over Queens Park Rangers in November.

Pressure on referees

“That’s a campaign, that’s a clear campaign. People, pundits, commentators, coaches from other teams, they react with Chelsea in a way they don’t react to other teams. They put lots of pressure on the referee and the referee makes a mistake like this. We lose two points, Fabregas earns a yellow card. In other countries where I worked before, tomorrow in the sports papers it would be a front-page scandal. Because it is a scandal.”

– Mourinho hits out after Cesc Fabregas was booked for diving during a 1-1 draw at Southampton in December, for which he was fined £25,000 (Dh139,167) by the English Football Association.

52-year-old kid

“For me, it’s very important to feel that I’m a kid. Before the game I had the same feelings as my first final, I don’t know how many years ago. It’s important for me to feel the same happiness after the victory. It’s important for me to feel that I am a kid at 52 years old.”

– After Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the League Cup final, ending Mourinho’s 914-day wait for silverware, the longest of his career.

The price for Hazard

“Plus one of their three best players. £100 million for each leg, because he’s very young.”

– In response to a question about whether £100 million would be enough for Real Madrid to sign their reported transfer target Eden Hazard.

Arsenal rivalry

“Boring I think is 10 years without a title. That’s very boring. You support the club and you’re waiting, waiting, waiting for so many years without a Premier League title, so that’s very boring.”

– Responding to chants of “Boring, boring Chelsea!” during a 0-0 draw at Arsenal, who last won the league in 2004, in April.

Keeping the ball

“I ask myself if in the future, when I am a granddad and I am at home with my grandsons, and maybe the future of football is a beautiful green grass carpet without goals. And in that beautiful grass pitch the team with more ball possession wins the game. Because everybody says, ‘Oh, my team plays fantastically well, we had great ball possession.’ Good. ‘Oh, we build very well.’ Good. It looks like the goals are not there ... Football started a few centuries ago and the objective was one, but now it looks like the objective is another one. For me, I am very simple in my analysis: Football is about putting the ball in the net of your opponent and stopping your opponent.”

– On the modern obsession with possession.

Portuguese wisdom

“We do everything that a team needs. That’s why we deserve so much to be champions and I think everybody knows that. And the ones who say we don’t deserve it, in my country we say: ‘The dogs bark and the caravan goes by’.”

– On the criticism of Chelsea’s title-winning style

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