Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas wary of Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho ‘ghost’

The former Stamford Bridge boss is reportedly unhappy at Real Madrid and has never hidden his desire to one day return to England

4 Feb 2012 10:30:00

By Jake Watson

More On :  Chelsea FC, José Mourinho, André Villas-Boas
Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid - André Villas-Boas - Chelsea
Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid - André Villas-Boas - Chelsea

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has admitted that he is wary of the ‘ghost’ of former boss Jose Mourinho as the Real Madrid man reportedly searches for a route back to England.

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The 34-year-old, in his first season at Stamford Bridge, faces a fight to qualify for next season's Champions League after an inconsistent season.

Despite insisting from the outset that he was drafted in under the premise of a three-year plan, the young manager had claimed Mourinho's possible return will have all the top managers looking over their shoulders.

"I have no doubts in my mind," Villas-Boas told reporters. "Speculation will always come when you are unsuccessful and you are unsuccessful at Chelsea when you don't finish first.

"It led to all kinds of different managerial changes in all different kinds of countries and all different kinds of top European clubs.

"It's perfectly normal bearing in mind our position, if you were top of the league or in Man City's position, you would speculate a little bit less.

"But still, there is speculation also about Man City and United and their future."

Villas-Boas, Mourinho’s assistant while at Porto and Chelsea, is fully aware that the Real Madrid coach will demand only the best jobs available.

"Jose is always a good 'selling point'," he continued. "The fact that there is the possibility of his return to England leads to speculation associated with the top clubs, for sure.

"Jose doesn't take anything rather than the top, because he represents exactly the top in management.

"So whenever he becomes available, he'll for sure be a ghost on every bench in the Premier League."

Mourinho has never hidden his desire to one day return to the Premier League and although Villas-Boas has yet to finish his debut season he understands why his former mentor longs to come back to England.

"I think this is the best league in the world - we all agree with that - and after all of these years of absence he will want to make his return."

"It will be exciting. First we have to understand that his coming back would be excellent for the Premier League in terms of excitement and further competition and further competence, so fantastic."


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So, that game gave a few players a chance to impress for England. Who did/didn't? Will Welbeck start against France? Or Carroll? Or Defoe?!

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Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
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Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

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"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
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Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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