Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he was a d*ckhead while at Inter Milan between 2008 and 2010. The controversial coach left Inter Milan to Real Madrid in 2010 where he spent about three years before he returned to Chelsea in 2013, where he made his name as the special one between 2004 and 2007.
While at Inter Milan, the 57-year-old Portuguese tactician won his first FIFA World Coach of the Year award. He also won two Italian Serie A titles, Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Champions League, making him among the 5 coaches to do so with two different clubs.
In the midst of all these achievements Mourinho enjoyed at the club within two seasons, there were a series of issues the well-travelled coach had to battle with while at San Siro. He recalled an incident that happened between him and the players when they lost a match they ought to have won.
The match was between Inter Milan and Bergamo in 2009. Bergamo defeated the Italian giants 3 goals to one. Mourinho couldn’t stomach the taste of such a defeat and he had to attack the players after the match.
“I was very violent with the players – I told them they had won the Scudetto of sh*t. It was only afterwards that I understood I had hurt them and I apologised”, Mourinho told Gazzetta Dello Sport.
He said despite the differences between him and the club then, he felt that he was part of a big family that was why he was able to achieve so much with them in a short while. The Tottenham coach pointed out that despite being over 10 years since he left Italy, the staff of the club still call him.
“There are relationships: I coach, you play. Empathy depends on the ability to accept me as I am – it’s like a puzzle,” he said. “At Inter, there were people waiting for someone like me to complete that puzzle. I’m never fake, I’m original: it’s me and that’s it. I was also a d*ckhead, but that was me.
“I had already won a Champions League title – I used to always think of myself first and then others. At Inter, it was never like that.
“In a family, when you become a father, you understand that someone is more important than you and that you move into second place.
“Ten years later, we are all together again. Just the other day I spoke to Alessio, my driver from my time at Inter. Where and when does it happen that a coach who leaves, ten years later still talks to the driver? Never. That’s Inter for me. These are my people.”
