he dressing room was in shock.
Some Chelsea players were in tears and others hid their faces as Jose Mourinho went to each of them to say his goodbyes.
Eighteen years have passed since Mourinho’s first spell at the club ended, but that “sad day” at the training ground stuck with Salomon Kalou.
“It was not just a manager we were losing,” said Kalou, who played for Chelsea from 2006-2012. “It was a great person, a mentor, someone who was willing to help you and fight for you.
“The reason why he’s the ‘Special One’ is because he affects people. He brings something very special to a club.”
Not everyone has such fond memories of Mourinho, of course, from his subsequent second coming at Chelsea or, indeed, some of the clubs he has managed since.
Yet Benfica will hope the aura returns on the biggest stage of all – the Champions League – as Mourinho brings his new side back to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
And the 62-year-old won’t just be content with taking a seat at Europe’s top table again, as close friend Jose Peseiro explained.
“He wants to go and beat Chelsea to show everyone ‘I am here’,” he said.
An unexpected opportunity
Such a prospect felt a long way off when Mourinho was sacked by Fenerbahce last month.
But an unexpected opportunity arrived sooner than even Mourinho could have imagined – from the club that eliminated his former side in the Champions League qualifiers.
Mourinho was in Barcelona with his wife Matilde when the call came from Benfica president Rui Costa.
“Is it worth talking?” Costa asked him, after dismissing Bruno Lage following Benfica’s shock defeat by Qarabag.
It showed the tricky situation Costa was in before next month’s presidential elections.
But Mourinho was receptive.
In fact, Costa later claimed – in an interview with TVI – he had agreed a two-year deal worth about 3m euros (£2.6m) net initially, rising to 4m euros (£3.5m) next season. That is a fraction of what he earned at his peak.
The contract includes a break clause that will enable either party to terminate the deal 10 days after the final game of the season if they wish.
Twenty-five years on from his first brief spell at Benfica, which started with one president and ended with another, Mourinho was willing to walk into the eye of another political storm in Lisbon.
But this is a different Mourinho, compared to the relative novice who had never previously managed a club in 2000.
Few know that better than Jose Morais – his assistant at Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
“Jose brings more than experience, ambition and a winning mentality,” he said. “He brings the ability to shape a team into something greater than the sum of its parts.
“When he first came to Benfica, nobody really knew what he was capable of and, yet, he lit a fire.”
Mourinho went on to win 26 major trophies at Porto, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United and Roma.
But it is a decade since he lifted a league title. It has been over five years since he took charge of a match in the Champions League proper. And he is coming off the back of a bruising spell at Fenerbahce.
Can he really roll back the years?
Still brutally honest
The hair is whiter now.
Mourinho has portrayed himself as “more altruistic” and “less egocentric”, which will no doubt amuse those who have followed his career.
The Benfica manager has even insisted he has not returned to his homeland to “wage war” after reaching out to Porto president Andre Villas-Boas – his former colleague – and Sporting president Frederico Varandas.
Yet the obsession remains.
“Others accept defeat, but he fights that,” Peseiro said. “Even now, he doesn’t accept losing. He lives for football.
“Normally, when you age, you understand. ‘I lose, no problem, it’s life’ – but he’s still the same. He has less friends than others because the focus is football, football, football. He’s a passionate guy. He doesn’t like to lose. He wants to win.”
It won’t come as a surprise, then, that in his first week at Benfica, Mourinho took aim at the video assistant referee.
He also spoke directly to referee Sergio Guelho at half-time to ask why he had not booked Rio Ave goalkeeper Cezary Miszta for slowing the game down during a 1-1 draw.
And he’s not exactly been shy in critiquing his own side in public, claiming they were “naive” after conceding a late equaliser.
Sound familiar?
Kalou was 20 when he joined Chelsea and walked into a heavyweight dressing room fresh from winning back-to-back Premier League titles under Mourinho.
The Ivorian quickly realised his new manager was a straight talker.
“What I liked about him the most was his honesty,” he said. “He will never sugar-coat anything. As a player, I respected that.”
Kalou felt the full force of Mourinho’s sharp tongue even after the Portuguese left.
After watching Kalou score against his Inter Milan side, in 2010, Mourinho knocked on the Chelsea team bus post-match and asked his former player to come outside.
“When you were with me, you didn’t score like this,” he told him. “Be careful!”
Football has changed, of course.
But Mourinho made it clear to his Benfica players following his appointment that he would be “very direct”.
As well as pledging he would say a “lot of good things”, he also vowed to tell them “a lot of bad things”.
‘Jose’s fire has not dimmed’
A fluke of the fixture calendar means Mourinho is already preparing to take his Benfica squad to Stamford Bridge.
And history tells us it’s rarely dull when he is in the opposition dugout.
Mourinho declared “Judas was number one” after Chelsea fans turned on him during his time at Manchester United.
Another time, the Portuguese – whose family home is not far from the stadium – held up three fingers to signify the number of titles he won at the club.
He even went on to take the Spurs job in 2019, having once claimed he could not do so because he “loved Chelsea supporters too much”.
Perhaps, then, it is not a surprise you won’t find a photograph of Chelsea’s most successful manager on the legends wall outside Stamford Bridge, and his trademark Armani overcoat is not as prominent in the club’s museum as it once was.
But his contribution has not been forgotten.
Season ticket holder Tim Rolls has even predicted Mourinho will get a “very positive” reception on Tuesday.
“He did so much for the club,” he said. “He won three league titles and turned the club around. It’s 20 years since that first league title under him.
“I know he was manager of Spurs, but that was a while back and, if you look at in the round, he was a great thing for Chelsea Football Club. I don’t think there will be any hostility at all.”
There is certainly a different feel to this game as Mourinho is not managing a domestic rival.
But the Benfica manager has already talked about “forgetting feelings”, which won’t come as a surprise to those who know him best.
“We all evolve,” Morais said. “Time asks that of us. But the passion and ambition remain the same. Jose’s fire has not dimmed.”
Additional reporting by Nizaar Kinsella
Source: www.bbc.co.uk