LONDON: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho refused to discuss the breakdown of his friendship with Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas but could not resist a dig before they meet in the Premier League today.
The Spurs manager revealed on Thursday that his coaching ambitions had been thwarted by Mourinho at Inter Milan, where he was a member of his fellow Portuguese’s backroom staff, and that they were no longer close friends.
When asked at a news conference what his relationship with Villas-Boas was like, Mourinho ducked the question.
“I don’t describe (it) because I don’t discuss relationships with the media. It’s a personal thing ... I don’t care what he says,” he said yesterday. “I’m not here not to comment on what he says or to know what he says. I’m not interested.”
However, he then went on to describe how he had acted “professionally” when coming face to face with one of his former mentors, Louis van Gaal, with the barely hidden suggestion being that former charge Villas-Boas should perhaps take note.
“I played a Champions League final against a club where the manager was somebody very important in my career, somebody that gave me the chance to grow up and taught me so many things,” he said of meeting Van Gaal when Inter beat Bayern Munich in 2010.
“I had to play against him in the Champions League final and I did it in a professional way. And I think that is a way you have to do it,” he said.
The pair had been close with Villas-Boas working under Mourinho at Porto and Chelsea. REUTERS
