‘He sat us all down in the hotel and his aura was instantly clear. He kept repeating that we were going to win the league the following season’ John Terry opens up on his first meeting with Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho didn’t mess around when it came to announcing his arrival in English football back in 2004.

He was hired by Chelsea fresh from his Champions League triumph with Porto, with his first press conference being one of the most iconic introductions ever, as he declared himself ‘a special one’, much to the delight of the assembled media.

And it would appear that Mourinho was just as confident when he met up with his new players for the first time.

John Terry recalls first Jose Mourinho meeting

John Terry - who was ranked by FourFourTwo as Chelsea’s best-ever player in 2023 - quickly became one of Mourinho’s most trusted lieutenants and recalls the impact that the Portuguese had when he arrived in west London.

“He’d just won the Champions League with Porto and we all remember that press conference when he referred to himself as a ‘Special One’,” Terry recalls to FourFourTwo. “Everybody watched that and started calling each other, going, “Crikey, get a load of this guy!”

“But one of the first things he did was come to Portugal to meet us Chelsea lads at the England camp for Euro 2004. He sat us all down in the hotel and his aura was instantly clear.

“He kept repeating that we were going to win the league the following season and that myself, Frank and the others would be a big part of that. We lapped it up. It was a really powerful first meeting.

“Then we got back after the Euros and discovered what a brilliant worker he was. He demanded so much from everybody, from the kit man to canteen staff to the players. The detail he gave us before games, whether it was in the Premier League or Champions League or against a smaller team in the FA Cup, was something I’ve never seen with any other manager. He was incredible.”

Mourinho would win two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups in his first three seasons with the club, but was sent on his way in September 2007 amid reports that he’d fallen out with owner Roman Abramovich.

“I was devastated,” Terry continues. “In our final game under Jose, we drew with Rosenborg in the Champions League and I felt I was at fault for their goal - the man I’d been marking got away from me at a corner and scored. So, when I heard Jose had been sacked, I blamed myself a bit.

“Could he have stayed and turned things around if we’d kept a clean sheet that night? Who knows? He was an incredible manager, and a big loss. People cried when he said goodbye, including me. Avram Grant came in and he was very different; the players took charge of the dressing room. We were a strong group, but there was definitely a feeling we’d lost a top manager. We were all gutted.”