JOSE MOURINHO taught John Terry football rules even referees didn’t know.
The Chelsea legend revealed he learned loads from the Portuguese at Stamford Bridge and recalled one clever game management which Terry had to correct the ref about.
John Terry learned rules from Jose Mourinho even referees didn’t know
Terry opened up over more Jose secrets while on World Cup punditry duty
Terry, 41, played under Mourinho in both the 59-year-old’s spells in charge at Chelsea.
And the ambitious former defender recalled a particular nugget he picked up from now-Roma boss Mourinho that showed his attention to detail.
Terry, now a youth coach at Cobham, told the Times last year: “When José Mourinho first came to Chelsea, he’d be in at 8am, putting the cones out, putting the balls down, making sure that drinks were there, the bibs are lined out.
“I made notes about what he said in team meetings, what he did in training sessions. I learnt so much from him.
“These are bits you pick up from top managers like Mourinho.
“He always said to me and Gaz [Gary Cahill], with five minutes to go, if we were winning 1-0 and the cross comes in, both go for a header, but both go down after.
“If you both go down you don’t have to come off the pitch. Gaz and me didn’t know about this rule.
“So this cross comes in, we go up for a header, we both go down, the ref blows the whistle and I said, ‘You all right Gaz?’. ‘Yes.’ ‘Stay down.’
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“The ref comes over, ‘You both have to go off the pitch’. ‘No, you don’t, this is the rule.’
“The ref goes, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Mourinho was so far ahead of the game. It ran the clock down. That can win or lose you games.”
Terry won 15 trophies with Chelsea and 78 England caps, with Mourinho’s no-nonsense style the driving force behind a lot of those.
But there were times the Special One ordered his players to abandon their pragmatic ways on the pitch.
World Cup pundit Terry told BeIn Sports yesterday: “[Jose’s mantra?] Just win. He didn’t care how to get a small advantage.
“He was so far ahead with those small margins, the best managers find those margins.
“He didn’t need [3-0 or 4-0] but there were times he demanded certain teams, Spurs being one of them, he’d go ‘go and kill and them, go and make them suffer today.
“‘Make it five, six, seven, eight. Let them know Chelsea are here’.
“But as players on the pitch we were like ‘no we’ll take this, I want the clean sheet bonus!’”
