Mourinho: I May Not Bother To Watch Stoke Game At All

“My punishment, the dimension of my punishment, the stadium ban that stays suspended, obviously affects everything”, said Mourinho, who on Thursday lost a separate appeal against a suspended one-match stadium ban.

The FA published referee Jon Moss’ report from the match on Friday, detailing Mourinho’s expletive-laden rant in the officials’ dressing room.

Mourinho, however, has confirmed that he will travel with the team on Saturday and will only leave the players shortly before the game.

Rather than publicly speak to him I asked him to step into the entrance of my dressing room escorted by Simon Sutton, the West Ham United Security Manager.Mr Mourinho asked me about a tackle, an offside and a goal-line clearance. The game is unpredictable, but we try to reduce the impact from extreme scenarios you can imagine such as winning 4-0 at half-time to losing 4-0 at half-time, and between those you have 1000 options including injuries and red cards to each player.

“I think they [the players] will know I am with them”. He refused. I asked him again.

“In the future the stadium bans will happen a lot of times unless our association and those around Europe question in a very serious and legal way about the rights of the managers”.

“I have no plans (to watch)”.

“I’ve been here [at Chelsea] nearly two years and we have not played without a coach yet, so it is going to be unusual”, Matic told reporters.

Mourinho joked that he might even watch a movie in Stoke instead of the match, or sit on a street corner with his iPad. “They know I am going to prepare the team until the moment they go to the game”, he told London’s Evening Standard newspaper. “You can imagine how I feel”, he added.

“They know that during the game the action of the manager is not so crucial and I think the fact they know why I am not on the bench is also important for the group”.

“They are prepared”, he said of assistants Rui Faria, Steve Holland and Silvino Louro.

Mourinho was angry that his side were not awarded a penalty early in the second half, with the game all square, when striker Radamel Falcao went down under Saints goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg’s challenge and was booked for diving.