SOCCER/ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:JOSE MOURINHO yesterday provided a taste of what to expect when he finally returns to management by warning Chelsea he is out to "kill" them.
The self-styled "Special One" is ready to end his self-imposed exile from the game and take charge of a top Spanish or Italian team this summer.
Oozing the charm and charisma that made him one of the leading personalities in the Premier League, the former Blues boss expressed his love for the club he managed for more than three years before his sensational September departure.
But he revealed he was desperate to meet them in Champions League combat next season and knock them out of Europe. "I hope to play them next season in the Champions League," said the Portuguese, speaking in Valencia at the official global launch of miCoach, a real-time training system devised by adidas and mobile phone giants Samsung.
"If I play them in the Champions League, I want to go there and kill them - that's my message."
Mourinho was replaced by Avram Grant, who had originally been brought to Stamford Bridge as director of football. The Portuguese refused to express an opinion on his successor, saying: "I feel nothing for him, I feel everything for the club, but not for him personally. I still feel Chelsea is a part of me, I'll have Chelsea in my heart forever.
"I left and for five months you couldn't get a bad word from me in relation to the club and you cannot do it in the future too."
Mourinho's departure was shrouded in mystery, with the build-up dominated by rumours of a falling out with billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. But he revealed he and the Russian had kept in contact and were on good terms.
"I think it was last week that I spoke with people from the club," said Mourinho, who has spent the past five months taking holidays with his family and keeping close tabs on the world of football.
"I was speaking with Mr Abramovich and (chief executive) Peter Kenyon because we still keep in touch. I was telling them I wish them always good, I wish them always to succeed, I wish them always to win."
Mourinho, who rejected the chance to become England boss in November prior to Fabio Capello's appointment, promised to return to manage in the country. He insisted there was no severance agreement with Chelsea stopping him doing precisely that next season, saying: "People wrote that I couldn't work in England for the next two years or four years. That's not true." He added: "I don't hide that I was completely in love with English football. I don't hide that one day I will be back.
"Not the next step because I would feel very uncomfortable, after Chelsea, going back to England and working again at another club."
Of Capello, he added: "They've got the right man, the right coach, the right person. I think he's fantastic."
Mourinho also backed the Football Association to put a structure in place to allow an English coach to become national team boss.
Of his own immediate future, he ruled out a move to Germany, effectively limiting his options to Spain and Italy. He said: "I want to be back. Of course, not now. We are in the last two months of the competitions so I wouldn't get a team now. But I look forward to the next few months, June and July, and hopefully I get the kind of projects I have in mind for the start of the new season."
Mourinho had some advice for the powers that be in English football and the Premier League's plan to host matches overseas. "If you want to do something abroad, why not the Charity Shield in New York, the League Cup final in Tokyo or Seoul or wherever," he said. "But the Premier League is my Premier League and the FA Cup is the FA Cup.
"English supporters will always be English supporters and English stadia will always be English stadia."
