Mourinho says he’ll ask youngsters to follow the example of Drogba

Jose Mourinho will use former striker Didier Drogba as a template of how to behave as a professional when he tries to coax the best from the younger players in his squad, the Chelsea manager said. Didier Drogba was brought in 2004 from Marseille for a club record at the time, 24m pounds. Since, then the Ivorian went on to score 157 goals in 341 appearances and his last kick of a ball coming from the winning penalty against Bayern Munich for the club first ever Champions League trophy in 2012.
“I think Didier Drogba, as a man and as a professional, is a good guy to be looked at as a very special player in the history of this club,” Mourinho told Chelsea’s monthly magazine. “I can use Didier as a profile to persuade the young boys to follow me because he did follow me from day one. “He was playing in France and nobody really knew a lot about him when I asked the owner (Roman Abramovic) to buy him, Some people thought he was too expensive for somebody who had not proved himself. Then, in the owner’s 10th year in charge (2013), he was voted the best player in Chelsea’s history. I think every player can have the same ambition that Didier had because he was a guy driven by ambition, by emotion, by friendship and by loyalty, He was loyal to the club, the manager, his fellow players and the fans.”
Drogba helped Mourinho win back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006 and also scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester United at Wembley in 2007.
In other news, Most squad players apart from the ones who took part in the Confederations Cup are back at Cobham for pre-season training on Monday, July 8th. New players, Andre Schurrle and Marko Van Ginkel well getting to know their new team-mates and were spotted while playing pool at Cobham. Mourinho also met the squad in the locker rooms and spoke to them for the first time face to face since he made his return to Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho also said that he wants to deliver the attractive style of football that owner Roman Abramovic craves for to see at Stamford Bridge.

“I want to make the Chelsea fans happy – by results, by our playing style, by the mentality and the personality of the team,’ he said.
‘They have to know that there are three options in the match – where we can win, draw or lose – but we always give everything.”

Mourinho’s ruthless brand of football has been called into question in the past, but now he wants to shape the team’s mentality and excite the fans through free-flowing football. Speaking of his impeccable record at his clubs’ home grounds, Mourinho said he is willing to chance his arm when it comes to switching tactics.

“I know in my record at Chelsea – also at Inter and Madrid – that I made many decisions that helped my teams. If I gamble, as you sometimes call it in England, with a very risky decision, it can go the wrong way.”
‘How many times did I play here with three defenders? I remember against West Ham [in April 2006], we were losing 1-0 and we were playing with 10 men after Maniche got a red card early in the game.
‘I still gambled because I wanted to win with 10 men – and we did win, 4-1.’

And Mourinho wants stalwarts from his previous success – like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech – to embed his famous winning mentality in the younger members of the squad. “Of course, there are senior players still at the club who can do the same and this is the legacy of the club culture – as some guys are arriving, they have others who can transmit to them immediately what this club means. One day, these older players will finish and the younger guys now will be the older ones in the future, so the Chelsea culture is continuously passed on from one generation to the next.”
Jose Mourinho’s quotes were picked from the July edition of Chelsea Football club official magazine. On this months edition is also featured interviews and other statics for the celebration of ’10 YEARS OF ROMAN EMPIRE’. The Portuguese trainer is featured on the cover of the magazine.
It is good to hear the ambitions and plans of Jose Mourinho to get results in the best way possible by playing attractive football that suits most of the player we signed in recent years. The likes of Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard, Ramires and David Luiz will continue to be a folklore of the passing game we have adapted in the past two seasons. But, Mourinho isn’t a kind of manager who will stick to a particular game plan if results aren’t going Chelsea’s way. He will change formations, starting 11s and playing style in regards of the opposition we face. And that kind of game plan will be beneficial for success as it was evident from Mourinho’s reign at Inter Milan in the past. As the Special One himself said last month in his first interview with Chelsea TV, The Italian Seria A is the most tactical one and him succeeding at Inter by dominating European Football shows Jose is up against any team in the world when it comes to Tactical Nous. Even in his last season at the Bernabeu in Madrid, he outplayed Barcelona by winning the Super Cup and Eliminating them out of the Copa Del Rey competition.
This are some great quotes from the Special One and it shows the stability and plans of the team going forward. And this season coming ahead looks to be a promising one.