Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says it is a “disgrace” that a private conversation in which he appeared to criticise his strikers was broadcast on French TV.
Mourinho said he was joking when he complained about Chelsea’s lack of forwards and said that Samuel Eto’o may be 35 and not 32 years old.
“It was a funny conversation with somebody that doesn’t belong to the football world,” said the Portuguese.
The TV show’s editor says they are “fully comfortable” with the interview.
“We are very surprised by Jose Mourinho’s comments, claiming it was off the record,” said Herve Mathoux, editor and anchor of the programme by French broadcaster Canal Plus.
“The camera was located 50 centimetres, maybe one meter away from him. It was a tight close up,” he told CNN. (external)
Speaking ahead of his side’s Champions League last-16 tie against Galatasaray on Wednesday, Mourinho told the assembled media they should be “embarrassed” by the way the TV station published comments he had made about his players during a conversation eight days ago in Switzerland.
“It is a disgrace that someone is taping a private conversation,” said Mourinho.
“I’m not defending what I’m saying. I’m attacking something that is, I think, fundamental in your professional area and that person showed exactly what he is or what he does not know about the job.
“From my perspective, the comment is not obviously a good one, not one I would do in a serious way, not something I would do in an official way in an interview.”
Mathoux says “there is no way Mourinho could ignore he was filmed”, but the Blues manager claims he had no knowledge that was the case.
In the video, Mourinho said: “The problem with Chelsea is I lack a striker. I have Eto’o but he is 32 years old, maybe 35, I don’t know.”
But in Tuesday’s news conference, the former Real Madrid manager backed Eto’o, who is 32, and sought to limit any damage in the relationship between the two men by highlighting the fact that the Cameroon forward has played under him at two different clubs, Inter Milan and Chelsea.
“It was with Eto’o that I had the best ever season of my career,” said Mourinho, referring to the 2009-10 campaign when Inter won Serie A, the Coppa Italia and Champions League.
“He’s one of the few players who is working with me in a second different club and a manager never does that when he doesn’t like the player or doesn’t like the person.”
Mourinho added that Eto’o, who joined Chelsea on a free transfer from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala last summer, had “no reason to be upset” with his comments given he had once said he would never play for the Portuguese.
“After a few years, he was playing with me at Inter and now he is playing for me [at Chelsea],” said Mourinho. “There is no story.”
Eto’o has only scored eight goals in 27 appearances since he arrived at Stamford Bridge last August. Fellow strikers Fernando Torres and Demba Ba have only managed 11 goals between them in all competitions.
But despite the lack of goals from the strikers, Chelsea are a point clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with 11 games remaining.
