Lampard scrubbed up nicely for Chelsea
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Lampard scrubbed up nicely for Chelsea after Jose showered him with praise
Frank Lampard was standing in the shower after a training session when Jose Mourinho told him he was the best player in the world. Casually, but with certainty, as if he was imparting information that any coach could have worked out.
That is what he does. That is why today is the seventh anniversary of the last league match he lost at home. February 23, 2002, Porto 2 Beira-Mar 3.
Since then, he has stayed undefeated in 38 league games at Porto, 60 at Chelsea and 12 more at Inter Milan, who now dominate Serie A. Mourinho is currently getting world class performances from Adriano, a notorious waster, and Sulley Muntari, a Ghana international who was good at Portsmouth, but not this good.
Mourinho’s brilliance is the way he can take a top player and elevate him. John Terry and Didier Drogba have never looked better than under his stewardship. Deco, at Porto, was the coach’s creation. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in the form of his life in Italy.
The techniques Mourinho uses to manipulate situations publicly, he utilises in private, too. He knows precisely when to drop the bomb, which is how, at Chelsea, he turned Lampard from a very good player into the driving force behind back-to-back title wins and a Footballer of the Year.
‘His man management was just terrific,’ said Lampard. ‘He knew how to get into people’s heads. He got into mine the moment he came. He has that air of arrogance, that confidence, and it rubs off.
‘I have never had a manager who, while I’m standing in the shower cleaning my balls, tells me I’m the best player in the world. He did that. I’ll never forget it. So casual. “You’re the best player in the world, but you need to win titles”.
‘From that moment the extra confidence was in me. Not that I thought I was the best player in the world, but the manager who had just won the Champions League thought it. So I went out a different player.’
That is the key to Mourinho. What you see is not the half of it. The cleverness of the man is what happens behind closed doors. ‘His training sessions were to the dot,’ added Lampard. ‘He was so organised. There was always a point to what he was doing; and his man management was the same.’
Manchester United have their work cut out this week, particularly without Nemanja Vidic. No team have retained the Champions League and the previous four
winners have been knocked out in the last 16 the following year, by opposition considerably inferior to Mourinho’s Inter Milan.After defeating Bologna on Saturday, Mourinho said he would arrive at the training ground this week with a positive message for his players about tomorow’s match.
He has already told Ibrahimovic he is a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo. Maybe he was scrubbing down at the time, too.Maybe, if Mourinho’s inspirational powers remain, by the end of the season his players will have something almost as precious to clean: as Inter’s first European champions since 1965.
If that happens, just call him Goldenballs.
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that's fucking gay!!!
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‘I have never had a manager who, while I’m standing in the shower cleaning my balls, tells me I’m the best player in the world. He did that. I’ll never forget it. So casual. “You’re the best player in the world, but you need to win titles”.
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So that's what it takes to win titles ...
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I'll be sure to clean my ball often then..
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wtf
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Joes looks pregnant