Mourinho: "Samp the most important game..."

Mourinho: "Samp the most important game..."

Friday, 19 February 2010 14:56:35

APPIANO GENTILE - The most important match is always the next one, and for José Mourinho the Blucerchiati come before the Blues. "The only match I'm thinking about is Sampdoria," the Inter boss told Friday's pre-match press conference. "They are in form and have won their last four games. But even if it were against a team in difficulty it would still be a difficult game tomorrow because the next match is always the hardest one. For this reason I'm not thinking about Chesea and I won't rotate players. I am only thinking about winning tomorrow."

Sampdoria travel to Milan without the injured Antonio Cassano and the Italian press asked Mourinho if he prefers to face the Genoa outfit with or without their talismanic forward. "I don't know, but it's not important," replied Mourinho, "because there are many teams who change module and attitude when they face Inter, and Sampdoria are an example of this. When we went to Genoa they played with a diamond and they had never done it before. And then there are always teams who look like they are playing friendlies but when they play against Inter it's like they are playing in the World Cup. So I am only thinking about how we will play, not them. I don't know if it's better to face them with or without Cassano, but in general it's hard to play against a team full of confidence, like they are now."

As for his own team to face Samp in Serie A Week 25, Mourinho announced: "Stankovic and Eto'o are fit and they are in my squad. Balotelli and Santon aren't, so they haven't been called up, and I don't know if they will be fit in time for Wednesday."

According to reports in the Spanish press this morning, Real Madrid are lining up a summer swoop for Mourinho. "I'm not going to play this game," responded curtly the Inter coach, who also commented on the fake interview published in an English magazine this week. "There are two things that are hard to accept in the world. One is that I only talk in press conferences. I give very few extra interviews. It seems to me that this is hard to accept. I realise that in England they want me to talk about Chelsea, but I decided only to speak about that match in the press conference next week. So the dishonest newspapers invent things. Another thing that is not accepted is that I don't want to have a social life. I don't like it, and I demand respect for this."

Mourinho also had little to say about Roma and Milan's midweek European defeats: "Roma are my adversary in the championship, not in European competitions, so I'm not interested in how they played and I didn't see yesterday's match. What interests me is that Roma are in form in the championship and are a rival that I respect. Even when they were in difficulty I always said that Roma had Scudetto potential. There really are many good players there.

"Milan? They are still a possible rival for us in the Champions League. A quarter-final between Inter and Milan would be fantastic because it would mean that both teams have qualified. But Milan lost against a great team the other evening, not against a team of waiters. They can go second in the table if they win their game in hand, so if I respect Roma, I also respect Milan. The championship race is open so tomorrow we will play our best team without thinking about Chelsea."

Inter go into Saturday night's clash at the Meazza after away draws against Parma and Napoli, but for Mourinho there are no reasons to be concerned. "We got two draws at two difficult grounds, we got two positive points," he said. "The team was a bit tired so two draws in a row is no drama." 

The presence of Mario Balotelli at the stadium for last Wednesday's match between AC Milan and Manchester United was perfectly normal in the Inter coach's eyes: "What's the problem if we play against Chelsea on Wednesday and Gattuso comes to watch because he likes to watch the game, or Nesta because he is curious to see an important game? I don't see any drama in this."

A win against Sampdoria tomorrow will see Mourinho stretch his unbeaten home run in domestic league competitions to 130 matches, his last defeat coming against Beira-Mar in February 2002 when he was Porto boss. "What comes to mind is that I have never done anything for the record," he said. "And I won't tomorrow, either. I have never played for records."