Mourinho returns as Chelsea coach on four-year contract

Jose Mourinho returned to Chelsea as manager on Monday when he signed a four-year contract at the Premier League club, six years after leaving, following a fall-out with owner, Roman Abramovic.
Mourinho, 50, won two English leagues and one FA Cup during his first term at the London club between 2004 and 2007.
He then spent three years each at Inter Milan and Real Madrid – winning a Champions League, Serie A and the Italian cup treble with Inter in 2010, and with Real, one Spanish league and one Spanish cup.
Chelsea Chief Executive, Ron Gourlay, said in a club statement: “I am delighted to welcome Jose back to Chelsea.
“His continued success, drive and ambition made him the outstanding candidate.”
“It is our aim to keep the club moving forward to achieve greater success in the future and Jose is our number one choice as we believe he is the right manager to do just that.
“He was and remains a hugely popular figure at the club and everyone here looks forward to working with him again.”
Mourinho will be formally presented as manager on June 10.
His return was all but assured when “The Special One” was released out of his contract in Madrid two weeks ago.
Chelsea went through seven managers since his departure six years ago.
Mourinho won Chelsea’s first Premier League title in 50 years in 2005, topped the league the following season again and won the FA Cup in 2007 before he had to go in September of that year.
Chelsea’s record goalscorer, Frank Lampard, said recently that Mourinho was the best coach he has ever worked under.
“He made me believe I was better than I was at the time,” the midfielder said.
“I thought I was a decent player, but he said to me ‘listen, you can really get to the top’ and he made me believe it. I tried to take it on and do it.
“Mourinho was the best. For me he was. He brought my confidence to a level it had never been.
“He galvanises people. His own self-confidence reflects back on his teams. He did that to me personally.
“Tactically he’s fantastic. He’s very astute. As a team he sets you up brilliantly.
“But what he does is he gets the best out of players and gets this togetherness that I’d never known until he came to the club and I haven’t seen it again since then.
“He might rub people up the wrong way. As a manager, he’s brilliant with his team, tactically, he’s brilliant with individuals and I think he’s brilliant with the press. I know it creates a storm, but he does protect his players.”
Rafael Benitez, who saw Chelsea through the last few months of the season as the interim manager, said last month that Mourinho would be given around 100 million pounds to spend on new players.
Chelsea finished third in the Premier League this season, qualifying for the Champions League and won the Europa League.
dpa/NAN.