You could argue that the odds are nearly even that Jose Mourinho won’t be back next season as Chelsea manager, after the Portuguese granted the Madrid-based sports daily La Marca a four-page interview in which he described his current club as “not at peace.” In Spain for Chelsea’s Champions League quarterfinal clash with Valencia, Mourinho told reporters all week that he would like to coach another big club if he couldn’t stay at Stamford Bridge next season. Newspapers across Europe have repeatedly cited sources who say Mourinho wants to move to Real Madrid.
According to the Guardian, the La Marca article “functioned primarily as a vindication of his achievements in England,” in addition to being “a thinly veiled attack on Roman Abramovich’s failure to back him.” Mourinho refused to talk about his relationship with Abramovich during the interview, but the trouble began in December, when the Chelsea owner denied Mourinho the funds to strengthen his injury- depleted squad. Abramovich blamed Mourinho for offloading the players the club already had at the beginning of the season.
Meanwhile, Mourinho couldn’t resist floating out a series of compliments to Real Madrid saying, “It would be an honor to coach Madrid” and “Madrid can still win the league.” Regarding Chelsea, he lamented, “It is harder to work and to achieve results for a club that is not at peace… the other day I was calculating the number of coaches who have been named as Chelsea’s new manager for next season. We’re up to 13. The latest was Mark Hughes…