We are ready to be champions, says Jose Mourinho. Here at Chelseas pre-season training camp base, Mourinho is waxing lyrical about the upcoming campaign. It is his second back in the English game and hs is ready for the special prize again. We felt last season that we had a team, said Mourinho. Not a super team, but we had a team. This summer, though, he is more his usual ebullient self after his board snapped up Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and nice and early in his preparations, with the only other signing, Mario Pasalic, immediately farmed off to Elche on a season-long loan. Didier Drogbas arrival completes the picture and you sense that he is the final piece of a carefully-constructed jigsaw. The Portuguese may look tanned and relaxed in the unexpectedly warm Austrian sunshine but he has not been idle. I dont assess any of the other teams … I only care about us Jose Mourinho Instead, he has been busy identifying precisely where Chelsea were short last season and setting about to fix it. Even with that team last season we were fighting for the title until almost the end, we were in the Champions League semi-final, he said. From mid-season, we felt that we needed critical, surgical new players instead of buying five, six, seven, or eight. I am what I am. I dont like not to win. Finishing third last season was good. But I was not happy. We had a very good record against the top six but we deserved to lose to Crystal Palace. We shouldnt deserve to lose against Palace. And we also lost at Stoke and Newcastle, where we missed certain qualities in our game. You know perfectly the first away goal one of my strikers scored was at Southampton on New Years Day. And during the whole season, Samuel Etoo didnt score one single goal away; Fernando Torres scored three, I think, Demba Ba got two. That was the situation. Will it be a problem for Diego Costa to play at Palace or Stoke? Not at all. I think they will be the matches he will most enjoy. And Fabregas is a player of control. Hes a player that wants the ball, a player that needs the ball. In these matches away we will have much more control of the game and much more initiative than we had before. Mourinho last won the Premier League title with Chelsea in 2006 [GETTY] In Costa, in particular, you sense Mourinho sees a lot of his own qualities as a young man; a fighter who had the tenacity to make his own way in the game very much against the odds. While Chelsea sold Braziian defender David Luiz to PSG for £50m before the World Cup, it is the arrival of Costa, for £32m from Atletico Madrid, who helped lead the club to the La Liga title last season - breaking the strangehold of Barcelona and Real - with 27 goals that has already has the team talking. The guy is a real top striker, he said. Even the other older players - Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry - say its fantastic that he has come here because he is so strong. They thought of him as good in the air but after four days training they changed their opinion. They say he is much better than that. However, its not just about the physical profile or the tactical profile. I have known Diego since he was 17 and he went to Portugal. This is the kind of guy where life was not easy. He has always to fight a lot to do things. He didnt go to a big club and get a big chance. He arrived here, as he said to me, thanks to his legs and to his heart. He has been given nothing for free. I know his psychological profile and he is the kind of guy who is afraid of nothing and ready for everything. The Premier League is difficult and he knows that. But he is ready to play for Chelsea with all the responsibilities and pressures. I dont think it will be difficult for him to succeed.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 02:14:48 +0000