“Chelsea Were Far Too Ahead” – Rio Ferdinand Reveals How Jose Mourinho Forced Manchester United Stars to ‘Rebuild’ their Mentality

Jose Mourinho‘s first coming to Chelsea was one for the books. The Special One had collected back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006. This happened during Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United reign. Ex-United star Rio Ferdinand has recently recalled how Chelsea’s resurgence under Mourinho became a wake-up call for the Red Devils.

In his recent appearance on John Obi Mikel’s Obi One podcast, Ferdinand stated the Devils gave up their style of starting slow and beating teams, thanks to Mourinho’s impressive run with Chelsea. “By the time we woke up, we realized Chelsea were too far ahead. That first season, he [Mourinho] went for two seasons back-to-back when he came in. It took us some time to realize we were used to and comfortable to kinda start slow with the confidence that we knew at the turn of the year, we would catch any team and beat them,” said Rio Ferdinand.

“But we can’t wait till Christmas now, we’ve to start, focus, stay one and prep pre-season. We kind of rejigged and we rebuilt and came back. But we knew we’ve to something different,” he added. Mourinho joined Chelsea in 2004 after he led the domestic Portuguese side Porto to a UEFA Champions League win. For any manager, that is too good a milestone to achieve, considering that Porto has always been the underdogs. But the United folks were unsure if such a feat would have any significance in the Premier League. In fact, no one did anything as significant as Mourinho in 2005 and 2006.

Jose Mourinho’s fairytale-esque first stint at Chelsea

By the end of Jose Mourinho’s first season in charge, Chelsea had rewritten history. The club’s Premier League win in the 2004-05 season was their first in 50 years. Moreover, Mourinho’s Chelsea set the then-record for the most points (95) achieved in a Premier League season. They also set the record for the fewest goals conceded in a season with 15 goals. The next season also, Chelsea and the rest of the league would witness the Special One’s wizardry. In the 2005-06 season, Chelsea topped the Premier League in the first weekend. The side did not come down once since then and eventually bagged a second consecutive Premier League title.

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Years later, during the 203-14 season, Mourinho would return to the Stamford Bridge. The next season, he won a third Premier League title with the Blues. Contrary to Ferdinand and teammates’ doubts, Mou’s success at Porto has translated well in the Premier League. But thanks to the Special One’s wake-up call, Fergie’s Devils put an end to the former’s reign in 2007, by winning the League title.

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