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Jose Mourinho has finally broken his silence on the controversy surrounding his demotion of Chelsea physio Eva Carneiro, during a press conference in which he refused to take questions from the press, but instead offered a statement that was posted on Twitter by ESPN’s Miguel Delaney.
The statement was as follows:
“Look, I hope this room is full because the champions will be playing against the former champion, because [of the] transfer window, because we have hopefully a big match on Sunday, but I knew it already. It is not a surprise. No question. I don’t want to run away from it. I accept the question, and understand.
“First of all, I want to say I have a fantastic medical department, with top doctor, more than a dozen professionals, very good relation with them and, as they tell me all the time, they were never praised so much as in last few years. I praise them lots of times. They don’t forget that, I don’t. We have disagreements during this period, we need disagreements to improve. We work together.”
Regarding the report that Carneiro will be removed from Chelsea’s bench in future first-team matches, Mourinho said: “Your question about the bench. For some people it’s important. For others, it’s not… It’s my decision. I have seven assistants, only four can go on bench. Seven kitmen, only two. Medical, only two on bench. Dr. Fearne and Dr. Carneiro will not be on the bench, but doesn’t mean for rest of season. My decision [this weekend] does not mean they won’t be on the bench in the future. If you want to speak to me about football, I’m here. If you want to ask about other things, I’m not here.”
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When asked whether or not he regrets the events of the past week, he replied: “The game is emotional… football is football. The match is the match. Everything after the match can be different, especially after the meeting I had with my medical department yesterday. The ones that like football, please stay. The ones that don’t, go or don’t ask questions. If somebody thinks that a disagreement between manager and medical can affect team, they don’t have a clue. I have a fantastic relationship with people who work with me. I welcome dialogue. I make mistakes. Far from ruthless.
He concluded: “As one of my medical staff said yesterday, we work together, we improve together. The only thing they have to be worried about is having best around them in this club, they’re surrounded by top-quality people. Most important thing for them is medical attention during the week.”
When questioned over whether or Hazard did indeed need medical attention on the pitch, Mourinho replied: “I’m not discussing it.”
The manager’s comments could be taken in one of two ways – either this means that Carneiro has a future with Chelsea, or he’s downplaying her role within the club considerably in order to deflect criticisms of his harsh treatment of her.
Mourinho has come under fire for his actions in regards to Carneiro’s demotion, with his rival manager Arsene Wenger slamming him in a press conference earlier this week.
