Mourinho ‘will always be a Blue’ as he returns to Chelsea with new club Benfica

Jose Mourinho looked to his right, then his left, and smiled at pictures of his younger self lifting three Premier League trophies as the Chelsea manager.

The man who once referred to himself as a “Special One” returned to Stamford Bridge on Monday in his new position as the coach of Benfica and was confronted with images of the past, when he was regarded as the best manager in the world.

“Of course I will always be a Blue,” Mourinho said with a grin as he spoke at a news conference the day before Benfica takes on Chelsea in his first Champions League match in five years.

“I am part of their history and they are part of my history. I helped them become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me to become a bigger Jose.”

Mourinho had two spells with Chelsea, firstly from 2004-07 when he breezed into English soccer, utterly charmed it and was a breath of fresh air. His second stint from 2013-15 was not as successful but did include a third Premier League title.

No wonder he is still revered by fans in this part of southwest London — and honored with pictures dotted around the suite where he was speaking inside Stamford Bridge to reporters.

Mourinho a ‘legend’

Hours earlier, Enzo Maresca — the current Chelsea manager — described Mourinho as a legend and said it would be a “privilege” to welcome him back to the club for Tuesday’s game.

“For me personally, he is a legend for this club,” Maresca said. “And from Italy, he is also a legend for Inter (Milan) where he won the Champions League, so he is a legend for different clubs in the world.

“That shows how good he is, how good he has been.”

It will be an emotional return to London for Mourinho, who still wanted to assure Benfica fans of one thing.

“It will be my Chelsea until the start. It will be my Chelsea after the game. During the game, that’s my Benfica and that’s all that matters,” he said.

Since joining Benfica following a turbulent stint at Fenerbahce in Turkey, Mourinho has won two games and drawn one — all in the Portuguese league. This will be his first match in the Champions League since 2020, when he was at Tottenham.

“After 25 years,” Mourinho said, “I was expecting to go back to Portugal to the national team, not to Benfica. And I’m back to Benfica. So I don’t have career projects, I don’t try to think what can happen or cannot happen. The important thing is you give everything where you are.”

Maresca’s reminder

Chelsea has lost three of its last four games in all competitions — two in the Premier League and one in the Champions League. It has added some pressure on Maresca, who led the team to the Conference League and Club World Cup titles at the end of last season.

Maresca felt it necessary to issue a reminder of those achievements in his first year in charge and also to point out that of Chelsea’s five losses over the last six months, four have come when his team has had a player sent off.

Asked what more he needed to do to gain similar popularity to Mourinho, Maresca said: “Probably continue to win trophies.

“I remember a moment last season … where the fans were starting to sing ‘We have our Chelsea back.’ I would like it (to be popular with fans) one day, for sure, but it’s not my target. I’m already happy if they can sing, ‘We have our Chelsea back.'”

Maresca said he had injury concerns over midfielders Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos and striker Joao Pedro because of “small problems.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer