The former Blues midfielder states that the Portuguese never dropped the dressing room in his initial stint at Stamford Bridge.
Jose Mourinho’s shock death from Chelsea in September 2007 abandoned the likes of Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard “yelling on the ground”, states Steve Sidwell.
A Portuguese tactician had helped to lift the Blues into the very top of this English game through a first stint at the Stamford Bridge dugout.
He was then unceremoniously ushered through the leaves, with Sidwell determined that the present Tottenham boss, that returned to Chelsea in 2013 hadn’t lost the dressing area and abandoned most of his senior celebrities ravaged by moving forward.
The prior Blues midfielder, that had been signed up by Mourinho a matter of weeks prior to his death, advised The Sport: “I never believed that anxiety or believed he had been in trouble.
“There were a couple of games you can see things in the media and it truly bubbled up. The players were united, nobody had been turning against him, he had not lost the dressing area.
I simply thought, ‘Sh*t, he has gone.
You might have heard a pin fall. It felt like somebody had died. When you see powerful characters such as Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, and John Terry either yelling on the ground or certainly welling up… I have mad also. It was really bizarre.”
Sidwell took in only 25 appearances for Chelsea throughout a one-season remain and admits the entire experience was rather eccentric.
As a boyhood Blue, he had been thrilled to be given the opportunity to go for Stamford Bridge, but faced fierce competition for places and has been fairly surprisingly handed the No.9 shirt on his birth.
He included that phone: “Mourinho was sitting at the front and he states, ‘Steve, you are likely to use No. 9 this season.’
“Every participant who combines a new club examines the numbers offered and I had noticed the numbers 9, 14 along with many others that went upward from that point. I simply assumed I may find the No. 14 in a push.
“I did not understand if he was just testing me. When I said, ‘No thanks’ it’d seem like that I had a weakness in my own mindset. When I say’Yes’, then it can have been that he was just joking. However, I thought at least I would then show him that I had the balls to put on it. I said’Yes’ and it was that he was becoming serious.
“After I told folks, my partners and loved ones, everyone was just laughing. Clearly the amount has a great deal of history concerning high centre-forwards which was not me. I moved on to score 1 goal for Chelsea.
“Looking back on why he might have decided today, I believe he had been sending a statement upstairs to the plank.
“That summer he’d wanted more cash to spend on transfers – but he has attracted me, Tal Ben Haim and Claudio Pizarro on free moves. The only major buy was Florent Malouda. I guess that he had been making a point by providing it to some free move from exploring .”
