One of the most charming people to ever grace the beautiful game is Jose Mourinho. He recently shared a letter from one of his old Chelsea teammates following Enzo Maresca’s team’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal in March 2025.
One-of-a-kind manager Mourinho’s most notable management tenure was from July 2004 to September 2007, when he was appointed head coach of Stamford Bridge. His points per match average throughout 185 games was 2.22.
What Mourinho (and his former players) thought of Chelsea’s performance last month has been made public by an article from The Telegraph. Mourinho is currently in charge of Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce and continues to closely monitor Chelsea’s performance.
Mikel Merino, a central midfielder by trade and Arsenal’s temporary centre striker, climbed to meet Martin Odegaard’s corner at the highest point. On away ground, the west Londoners were unable to respond as his looping header easily eluded Robert Sanchez.
Even if the Blues still have a chance to qualify for the 2025–2026 Champions League in Maresca’s first season as manager, their 1-0 loss to their city rivals was a disappointing day for the 45-year-old.
Additionally, it was disclosed after the loss at the Emirates Stadium that one of his players from their 2004–05 team, which was hard to beat, messaged him to say they could still overcome Chelsea today with just two weeks of practice.
Twenty years have passed since Mourinho led his team—which included the illustrious John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Claude Makelele—to their first English top flight championship in fifty years, despite giving up a record fifteen goals in 38 games during that time.
Since then, no one has been able to match or even surpass that honour. According to The Telegraph, Mourinho stated that one of his former players from that historic Chelsea team thinks they could still defeat what Maresca has now, even though many of them are in their mid-40s.
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Mourinho, Lampard, and Terry reflected on Chelsea’s heyday. In his lengthy and illustrious career, the Portuguese tactician has won three Premier League championships and two Champions Leagues. He stated:
One of these players from 2004–05, who played for Chelsea against Arsenal a few weeks ago. I got a message from one of the guys. I won’t reveal who it is, but the man is currently, I’d estimate, 45 years old. They are all around forty-five.
“And one of them, who wasn’t John Terry or Frank Lampard, wrote to me and said, ‘Boss, if you got together the 2004-05 team now and did a two-week training camp, we would beat the current Chelsea team.'” Naturally, it was a joke. However, the message was that we were so strong and talented that, despite being 45 years old, we were able to defeat the current Chelsea club after two weeks of training. We remain a team between us.
The enigmatic Mourinho – largely considered as one of the greatest football managers of all time – returned to Stamford Bridge in July 2013 for a second whack at the whip. In that time, he won another Premier League title and a League Cup in 2014/15.
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