Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will appeal his £50,000 Football Association fine and suspended stadium ban after claiming he must “be honest with myself” even if it risks further trouble.
Mourinho labelled his fine and suspended stadium ban for misconduct “a disgrace” on Thursday and a day later he hit out at the FA as he prepared for today’s visit of Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League.
And the Portuguese coach admitted he was perhaps being ‘naive’ in considering the core of English football as being held by passionate fans rather than its governing body.
The FA issued Mourinho with its written reasons for his punishment this week and he says it marks a point where he must refrain from expressing his opinions.
But despite his stated refrain, the Chelsea boss couldn’t resist a dig at the FA — while also bizarrely hinting that he would happily work for them one day as England manager.
“The moment we got the written reasons and we decided to appeal is the moment to stop with my opinions and not to add anything more,” Mourinho said, conceding that the charge was correct but that the punishment was excessive.
‘Maybe I’m naive but for me, English football and its fans and passion for the game, are what makes me like so much this country and the football in this country is not the FA.
‘If one day I’ve to work for that people I will.’
Having witnessed a sketchy start to the season which sees Chelsea down in 16th in the Premier League, just above the relegation zone, Villa — themselves enduring a bad spell — visit Stamford Bridge knowing that the cloak of invincibility for Mourinho there has been removed.
And Chelsea’s under-fire boss admitted that teams travel to SW6 no longer in fear of the champions.
“One thing is to go to a stadium where there’s a huge percentage of defeats for the away team. Another thing is to go to a stadium where the home team in the last four games has won only once,’ he said.
“I really believe every team coming to Stamford Bridge doesn’t fear us. They think they can get a result.”
The Blues are without Branislav Ivanovic after the Serbian defender suffered a hamstring tear on international duty.
Mourinho is set to hand Kurt Zouma a place at right back in a bid to combat the aerial threat of Rudy Gestede, but yesterday he kept his cards close to his chest, saying he had four replacement options.
‘We’ve only Ivanovic injured. (Thibaut) Courtois is recovering. Everybody else is well.
“I’ve four solutions. I have (Cesar) Azpilicueta, I have adaptations for Ramires, I have Ola Aina, a boy with potential.’— DailyMail