Chelsea
manager Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday that he feels he retains the
support of owner Roman Abramovich despite the looming risk of Champions
League elimination, AFP reports.
The
misfiring Premier League champions face a make-or-break home game with
Mourinho’s former club Porto on Wednesday, when they need a draw to
rubber-stamp their place in the Champions League last 16.
Chelsea
remain 14th in the Premier League after Saturday’s abject 1-0 loss at
home to Bournemouth and Mourinho refused to speculate about what might
happen if they fail against Porto, saying only “there are no ifs”.
But he
issued a robust defence of his Chelsea record, saying, “I think that I
did lots of good things in this club for the owner to know the quality I
have.
“The owner
shows me that belief twice: once when he brought me back to the club
(in 2013); the second time when he gave me a new contract for four years
(in August).
“I don’t
think the owner is a person to change with the wind. I know the wind of
the results is an important wind. I know this wind is strong because the
results in the Premier League are really bad.
“But I
think the owner knows who I am and what I give to the club, and the
owner believes that I am the right person to do the job.”
Chelsea’s
hierarchy gave Mourinho a public vote of confidence in October, but
there has been no official communication from the club’s board since.
With a
top-four finish in the Premier League looking an increasingly remote
possibility, Chelsea need to find an alternative means of qualifying for
next season’s Champions League.
If they
finish third in Group G they will drop into the Europa League, but
although victory in that competition would take them into the Champions
League, Mourinho is setting his sights higher.
“I know
that, in this moment, it looks to win the Europa League might be an
easier way to be in the Champions League next season than to finish in
the top four,” he told his pre-match press conference.
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