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Jose Mourinho is not motivated by the thought of matching Roberto Di
Matteo's achievement of winning the Champions League with Chelsea.
Mourinho said his focus is instead on building his next great team at
Stamford Bridge, one that is capable of challenging for the trophy
that has so far eluded him during his time in west London.
The Portuguese, who delivered Champions League titles while in charge
at Porto and Inter Milan, has so far not been able to repeat the feat
with Chelsea, whose one and only success in the competition came under
Di Matteo's stewardship in 2012.
But this season has started promisingly for the Blues, who are
unbeaten in all competitions and sit clear at the top of the Premier
League.
Progression into the knockout stages of the Champions League can be
attained with a victory over Di Matteo's Schalke side in Gelsenkirchen
on Tuesday night, but Mourinho is not thinking about having to equal
the Italian's triumphs during his spell at Chelsea.
"Don't ask me to speak about him,"
Mourinho said when asked about the former Blues midfielder. "The
history is the history — he was on the Chelsea bench when Chelsea won
the Champions League and he is a historic name in this club. I have
nothing more to say.
"My name is in the history of this club. A football club is made of
many, many names — not one or two names or one player or one manager.
I did my history here and now I have the chance to make more history
here and he was Chelsea manager and he did his history."
Although winning Europe's elite club competition is seen as a huge
accolade, Mourinho refuses to pin his Chelsea legacy on delivering
that title and is keen to establish a new generation of players who
can fight for trophies across the board.
"I want to win the next match. I want to make the team come up and the
Champions League — I say many, many times — is not a consequence of
a great work," he said. "Sometimes it is not. You can win the
Champions League in the worst season. You can finish fifth and win the
Champions League. Liverpool did and Chelsea too.
"So the Champions League is something that you can not say, 'This is
the direction I want to go.' A knockout competition is something that
always has a big percentage of unpredictability.
"I can do nothing to win it. I can only work to improve my team all
the time, make a very good team like we are doing. Me working on the
pitch, the board working at other levels, to make a great team like we
did in 2004-05-06."
Mourinho has targeted victory in Germany to secure safe passage at the
first opportunity and avoid tricky fixtures in among important
domestic games in December, warning his players not to take
qualification for granted.
The teams drew 1-1 at Stamford Bridge in the first round of fixtures
before Di Matteo replaced Jens Keller as Schalke boss.
Credit: PA Sports
