Boring Boring Chelsea

[augie]

I would certainly disregard the Europa league triumph - just look at the list of winners around that time and you will see that it reads like a who's who of 3rd tier European clubs

[SteveO 35]

One word to all the people that have said Mourinho is only successful due to money - PORTO. He won the UEFA Cup in 2003, followed by the Champions League in 2004 with (in European terms) a footballing minnow. We can hate him, call him classless, call him boring as much as we want but he is a winner.

Some of the football we player under George Graham was very similar but I loved watching us win 1-0 as we moved closer to yet another trophy.

If Mourinho was our manager, we'd probably all find a way to love him.

And Greece won the European championships but that tells me that, even in the modern era, freak results like that happen. You gotta remember that his porto team were easily the best team in their own league at that time, and they were able to win their domestic league at a canter - this no doubt helps them with they face opponents who might be physically and mentally drained from the efforts in their gruelling domestic competitions. This becomes even more vital when your team plays defensive containment football against tired teams who find it harder to break them down.

That is not me rubbishing porto's success in the champs league that season cos it was still a great achievement, but it also shouldn't be ignored that for all the money he spent at the chavs over the years, he has never come close to winning the champs league with them - his tactics wouldn't have changed but the quality of the players he had at his disposal had improved, and yet he still didn't come close

Don't agree with that point at all - by the same token then, Celtic should be able to breeze their way through the early rounds of the CL ? I actually think it is harder to win with a team from one of the so called lesser leagues as they are not used to coming up against that level of competition week in, week out

[Henry Norris 1913]

porto were hardly european minnows comparable to celtic, just look at that defence from the team they fielded in the 2004 final:

GK 99 Portugal Vítor Baía
RB 22 Portugal Paulo Ferreira
CB 2 Portugal Jorge Costa (c) Booked 77'
CB 4 Portugal Ricardo Carvalho
LB 8 Portugal Nuno Valente Booked 29'
DM 6 Portugal Costinha
RM 23 Portugal Pedro Mendes
LM 18 Portugal Maniche
AM 10 Portugal Deco Substituted off 85'
CF 19 Brazil Carlos Alberto Booked 40' Substituted off 60'
CF 11 Brazil Derlei Substituted off 78'
Substitutes:
GK 1 Portugal Nuno
DF 5 Portugal Ricardo Costa
DF 17 Portugal José Bosingwa
MF 3 Portugal Pedro Emanuel Substituted in 85'
MF 15 Russia Dmitri Alenichev Substituted in 60'
FW 9 Lithuania Edgaras Jankauskas
FW 77 South Africa Benni McCarthy

His biggest success IMO was at inter, where he won the league 3 times in a row and the european cup. But still, we will neve know how good he really is. Once we came to England, we was lauded and celebrated to such an extent that any player under him would give their utmost respect. He can never lose a dressing room with the confidence and bravado he has. What I'm saying is he could easily be a myth, but we have no way of knowing for sure.

[Jumpers For Goalposts]

I would certainly disregard the Europa league triumph - just look at the list of winners around that time and you will see that it reads like a who's who of 3rd tier European clubs

We couldn't win the bloody thing in 2000