LONDON, Sept 22: Jose Mourinho, who left Chelsea by mutual consent earlier this week, is keen to coach another English club later in his career.
Asked if he wanted to work in England again, he told Sky Sports on Friday: “Yes, for sure. I don’t want it for my next step, I don’t want to close the Chelsea door and open another door. My next step will be another country. I am 44 and I hope I have many years of management ahead and I love English football. It is an unbelievable football country.”
Mourinho will not go back to his native Portugal just yet either.
“I don’t want the Portuguese national team,” he said. “I want to make that very, very clear. I want Portugal to succeed, I want them to work calmly and I don’t want (manager Luiz Felipe) Scolari to have to look behind him thinking I’m waiting.”
Mourinho said there were “fractures” behind the scenes at Chelsea.
“The whole club was not a real block,” he said. “There were some fractures. “Maybe everybody had a responsibility (towards that) but I think this (departure) was the best solution.”
Mourinho confirmed he had left by mutual consent.
“I was not sacked and I didn’t close the door,” he said. “It is fair to say we found the correct words, mutual agreement is the correct English.
“I am not saying I am happy (about it but)....I am happy I stopped my work at Chelsea. When people don’t want to sack you and when the manager doesn’t want to close the door you can go on and on and on but I think this was the best situation.”
Mourinho would not go into detail about his exit.
“I am a man of war during competition but I am a man of peace outside competition,” he said. “I don’t want to air any dirty linen in public.”—Reuters