Monday, May 24, 2010

José Mourinho sets his sights on European grand slam with Real Madrid

The 47-year-old admitted after Saturday's Champions League final win over Bayern Munich at the Bernabéu that he was likely to leave theNerazzurri, and he seems certain to switch his attention to adding the Spanish league title to those of Italy and England.

Speaking in an interview in today's Marca, which was billed as Mourinho's first as the new coach of Real Madrid, the Portuguese said: "No player or coach has won the three important leagues and I want to be the first to do it. Ancelotti, Capello, Van Nistelrooy, Beckham and others have won two, but not three. I would like to be the first to win the grand slam of the Spanish, Italian and English leagues."

Mourinho is confident he can help Madrid fulfil their ambition of winning a record 10th European Cup. Madrid had hoped to reach this season's Champions League final on home soil but, for the sixth campaign running, they were knocked out at the last-16 stage.

When asked if he felt he was able to make Madrid champions of Europe, Mourinho – who on Saturday became only the third coach to win the European Cup with two different clubs – said: "Yes, of course. At Chelsea I felt I was capable of winning the European Cup. I won a couple of leagues and several cups, but not the European Cup. At Inter I felt capable of winning the Scudetto and cups, and we also won the Champions League. You can never say what you are going to do."

Mourinho preferred not to talk about what he felt was missing from the Madrid's squad or prospective signings, saying only when asked about the reported summer targets Daniele De Rossi of Roma and Maicon of Inter: "I like all the good players, but now is not the moment to bring up the business of future signings."

However, Mourinho did comment on two of Madrid's big summer signings from last year, Kaká and Karim Benzema. Kaká, 28, was brought from Milan for £56m while the 22-year-old Benzema cost around £30m when he moved from Lyon. Neither player has particularly impressed in their first campaign in La Liga.

Mourinho is confident both will come good, though. "They are two top players," he said. "But to analyse this situation properly you need to be inside and I'm not. It's difficult to analyse from outside, I've not seen enough games of Real Madrid to make an opinion. In the case of these two players, I don't think one not-so-great season is a drama. It's not an impossible situation to change. I don't think for them it will be a problem returning to the top."

Regarding the plans of Florentino Pérez, who returned to the Madrid presidency last summer promising a "spectacular project" to restore the Spanish side to their former glories, Mourinho seems impressed. However, he pointed out that it is the coach and the players who are the only ones who can win silverware.

"It's an ambitious project. As president he has put in place the necessary means in the sporting structure; he has a fantastic training ground, has invested money to build a team and has given confidence to the professionals until the end.

"[But] the president isn't the one who wins, he isn't the one who plays, nor who decides what happens on the bench. From there the responsibility is with the professionals: the coach, the technical staff, and the players.

"Nowadays the coach doesn't arrive at nine and leave at 11. I think that the coach is a very important person in the whole structure as he must lead all the other departments that surround the first team. I arrived at Appiano Gentile [Inter's training ground] at 7.30am and I left at 5pm or later. Some days I've even slept there when we've had little time to analyse our opponents in preparation for a game."

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