Mourinho reveals 'desire' to stay
Jose Mourinho warned his potential successors at Stamford Bridge that he will be a hard act to follow as Chelsea breezed into the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Mourinho's future at the club has been in the spotlight in recent weeks with suggestions that he will quit at the end of the season. The Portuguese manager insists he will see out his contract with the club but there are already a dozen possible names on the list to replace him should he leave.
However, after watching his side sink Forest with three first-half goals, Mourinho warned: "I think it is difficult to be a manager after me at any club so I would not recommend it. I know the list is quite long - 11 or 12 managers of Chelsea - but even if the list becomes bigger it is no problem for me. I am cool but it is my desire to stay at Chelsea."
Mourinho had already pledged to stay at the club in a BBC interview prior to the tie with Forest but he also insisted that his backroom staff are under no threat despite suggestions they are not being offered new contracts in the summer.
Mourinho declared: "My coaching staff do not need contracts. They never need a contract. They only need a contract when they decide to stop working with me. When they want to work with me, they know they have an automatic contract because where I am, they are."
Mourinho also scoffed at suggestions there was a rift between billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea manager and his squad because of his absence from the dressing room after recent matches.
The Russian was not at the game on Sunday but Mourinho declared: "He is the owner - he does what he wants. It doesn't matter to me. He has his life. He has a busy, professional life and I can imagine it is more busy and complicated than I know.
"He is always welcome to our space, to our dressing room, to our training space, so when he has no other commitments, he is coming. I have no problem with that.
"He is very happy because the team is playing well and has reached the final of the Carling Cup. When he's back, he's back and we are happy with that."
