When Chelsea win the Premier League title – and surely they will now do so – Jose Mourinho will unfasten the custom-made Hublot watch from his wrist and add it to his collection. As is his custom after winning a trophy, he will never wear the time-piece again.
Mourinho will also, eventually, receive a replica of the Premier League trophy at his home in central London and position it in one of his rooms – maybe even the bedroom of his son, Jose Mario, who already has some of his father’s prizes stored there – and he will kiss his family, receive his friends and allow himself a brief few minutes of satisfaction.
That satisfaction will not just be because he has “fed” himself on another title, ending a veritable drought for Mourinho of three seasons without being a league winner. For him, it has been a thorn in his side but he will believe he has triumphed this time by doing it in a different way.
The Chelsea he returned to two years ago, is a different to the one he left in 2007, when he was sacked unceremoniously by Roman Abramovich after agitating for his departure. And this, Mourinho also believes, is a different Premier League. He has felt the pressure.
“We are not any more the rich club,” Mourinho said by way of explanationas he prepares for Sunday’s home league encounter with Crystal Palace. Three more points and the title is his.
Not that Chelsea are paupers – far from it. But they are not unchallenged in their spending might. Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal can all flex that muscle.
Mourinho has reshaped his squad with £32 million Diego Costa, £30 million Cesc Fabregas, £30 million Willian, £27 million Juan Cuadrado, £21 million Nemanja Matic and so on. In four windows he has spent around £224 million but, crucially, and with Financial Fair Play biting, and with Chelsea also changing their business model, recouped £169 million. It is a net spend of approximately £55 million. Or about £5 million less than United spent on Angel Di Maria. This season Chelsea have pretty much turned a profit. Not bad for champions-elect.
Contrast that to the first four windows when Mourinho was first at Chelsea – spending £172 million and recouping just £34 million so with a net spend of £138 million. And this with a side he inherited that had finished second only to the Arsenal 'Invincibles’ the season before.
It is why, as he sat at Chelsea’s training ground at Cobham on Friday lunchtime, Mourinho could nod his head in agreement when it was suggested to him that this could even be his greatest title triumph.
“I know,” he said. “The titles in Portugal were big because Porto was coming from a very difficult moment, finished fifth the season before. But normally Portugal in the last 20 years, the titles were shared by both teams [Porto and Benfica]. In Spain it was fantastic because we [Real Madrid] had to do 100 points and that was a period of dominance of Barcelona, real dominance of Barcelona.
“We had to do 100 points and we had to win in Barcelona stadium with two matches before the end of the season.
“The ones at Chelsea were fantastic, because it was the beginning of the Mr Abramovich era, no titles before that. Now, it’s a great feeling because it’s my club, because of the league, because of the difference in the league, because, in this moment, we are not any more the rich club. We are a top club, but a club that lives with the work every one does. So it means a lot. Means a lot, lots of kids, first title for them.
“People that don’t know what is to be to be champions, so I want a lot this one. I think, in the moment we clinch the title, I will be much more happy for them than for myself.”
Happy and, also, challenging. When Mourinho last one the title with Chelsea there were the five 'big beasts’ in the dressing room – John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack. Now, next season with Cech set to leave and Drogba’s contract up, there is only Terry left.
Mourinho will survey that dressing room and, while he will add “a couple” of experienced players this summer, he will want to see a desire to not just win one title but to win it again. He will want to see who of the Chelsea players wants to be a 'big beast’ and be part of a new generation of winners.
“Of course,” Mourinho said. “When they have the taste of success, the big players want more. They want more. There are people happy with just one victory, but the big ones when they feel that taste, they want more. The big ones are not tired of winning: Sir Alex Ferguson and Paolo Maldini, and all these big people as players, as managers.
“It’s from day one until their last day in the game. In the game, they want to win, so I hope these people get the good taste. That’s maybe why also the Capital One Cup was important for the group. Win a title, enjoy Wembley, enjoy the happiness of the supporters and the group. Win, it brings more.”
Mourinho said that he believes there is that desire. “What I see in my players is that since the moment where people are saying that we are going to win the title, and we don’t, I see the players with hunger and responsibility to go to every game, every one, Stoke City at home, QPR and Man United and Arsenal and everybody is saying, 'they are champions’ but we are not champions and always, always, I felt the people [players] with that good mentality.”
There will be no overhaul of the squad even though Mourinho knows that not only does he have to do better in the Champions League. Exiting in the last-16 stage may have made the title run-in easier but is not acceptable and he knows that his rivals will spend big.
However, he will have to recruit a top-class striker to replace Drogba or a forward versatile to play in that role, which may explain the suggestion that he wants Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Greizmann, who has a £43 million buy-out clause. “The group of the strikers did very well for us,” Mourinho said. “I just imagine that it is something we can do in a different way. I just imagine this last period of the season only with one striker [with injuries to Costa and Loic Remy].
“Imagine in this moment if we have only had Didier to play Champions League, Premier League, Champions League, Premier League. It would be a difficult situation.”
Mourinho may also target another defender who can play at full-back or in the centre of defence plus, possibly, a midfielder and, of course, a new goalkeeper to replace Cech - with Mourinho eyeing Fulham’s Marcus Bettinelli.
“We need a couple of players to give more strength and depth to the squad,” he said. “For some of these young boys we have with us, Ruben [Loftus-Cheek, a midfielder] will be a Chelsea squad player, but probably the others [apart from the striker Dominic Solanke], after a fantastic year of preparation for them training with us, the next good step will be to go on loan and to be replaced by two players.
“In this case, by keeping the same number of players (20-man squad] – because we don’t want more than that – a more uniform group in terms of not quality but experience, to give us that little bit of extra in case we progress in the Champions League and we have that competition to play.”
So having won titles across Europe, is the Premier League tougher to win?
“If I say it’s very special, people will say I say that because I’m here,” Mourinho said. “But the reality is that if somebody can speak about the difference between the leagues and what it takes to be champion in different leagues, if somebody is in a good position to say that, it’s myself, because I was in different places. So yes, I think here is really special, and it’s really difficult.”
And it is even more satisfying, for him, because of that.
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