Jose Mourinho has stepped up his demand for clubs who fail to comply with Financial Fair Play to be docked points in yet another jab at Manchester City, in yet another surly press conference.
Mourinho did not refer to City directly, but the implication could not have been clearer, as he mentioned how teams should not be able “to be champions when they are punished, and it’s happened before”.
The Portuguese had refused to do media conferences before or after last Saturday’s 1-1 draw with City, partially because of what he perceived as Diego Costa’s unfair suspension for a stamp in Chelsea’s 1-0 Capital One Cup win over Liverpool, and it seemed as if he had saved up many resentments for Friday – not least his response to Manuel Pellegrini’s argument that Costa needs to improve his behaviour.
The Chelsea manager made a series of points, without explicitly stating them, while still making clear he was only attending the press conference because he had to. He also referenced the Football Association’s failure to punish Arsène Wenger for pushing him during Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in October, refused to name Costa because of the situation, and generally responded sarcastically or not at all.
His displeasure with City was again made clear when he did his occasional trick of calling the manager “Pellegrino” rather than Pellegrini. Mourinho had been asked about Chelsea’s ability to improve their squad but still make a profit of £7 million, having brought in Juan Cuadrado from Fiorentina, to replace Wolfsburg-bound Andre Schürrle.
“It’s something that was explained 18 months ago when I met our owner and the club board before I joined,” Mourinho said. “It was explained the profile of club Mr Abramovich wants, with total respect to the FFP rules. To keep the team strong, with the possibility to compete against the ones financially more powerful or against the ones who don’t care and don’t respect FFP, we had to work very hard. In my area, I tried to do that, analysing the players we can sell and those we can buy. But when it goes to numbers, it goes out of my control.
“It’s a good challenge. The only thing that is not nice is that you compete against the ones who don’t follow the same rules. That’s the only problem. I don’t think a team can be champions when you are punished, and it’s happened before, because you didn’t comply with FFP.”
Mourinho first floated the idea last September, when he also did not mention City by name.
“I don’t speak about Man City their players and their options. I appreciate the lesson that Mr Pellegrini wanted to give to one of my players [Costa], but I don’t want to do the same or give any kind of word about it.”
Mourinho was asked what would be a better punishment for failing to comply with FFP than a financial penalty. “Points [deduction], of course.”
It was not all irritation from Mourinho. He talked about Chelsea’s character and ability to overcome “unlucky moments”, praising the squad as a “strong group” and “good family”. The Portuguese also said he does not have a first-choice centre-half pairing, and that he decides depending on the game, praising Kurt Zouma as one of the best young defenders in the world.
Chelsea are missing only the injured Filipe Luis and Costa – whom Mourinho referred to only as “the player who is suspended” – for the trip to Aston Villa, where he has never won.
Asked why that was, Mourinho gave clearest indication of his mood: “Because the opponents score more goals than us, or sometimes the same number of goals.”
At the end, an Italian journalist asked Mourinho whether he was still “the happy one”. He finally smiled, and gestured to outside the Cobham press room. “When I walk through that door, I’ll be happy.”
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