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The outspoken Portuguese added on his strong professional ties to upcoming opponents: \u201cOf course I will always be a blue. I’m part of their history and they are part of mine. I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea and they helped me to become a bigger Jose. When I say I’m not a blue, I’m talking about the job I have to do. There are not many clubs that do these pictures. There is a fear in many clubs about what happened in the past. Sometimes it looks like they want to delete people who made history in the clubs. This shows Chelsea are a big club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho will be locking tactical horns with Enzo Maresca, a man he considers to have done a fine job since inheriting the reins at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2024. He said of the Italian coach, who was one of Pep Guardiola\u2019s assistants at Manchester City before heading out on his own again and guiding Leicester to the Championship title in 2024: \u201cHonestly, I don’t know the model. I never studied their model. There was a set period where myself, from the outside, was putting some question marks [on it] because it looked like Chelsea had lost their identity as a club. But what happened in the last season got things back on track. They gave trust to Enzo and gave his ideas. He’s fitted in well with the philosophy of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n