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See You in August, Says Mourinho
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Jose Mourinho celebrated the completion of a full set of English trophies by insisting he would still be at Chelsea next season.

Speculation that the Portuguese would quit or be forced out this summer has swirled around Stamford Bridge throughout Mourinho's third season in charge.

But after watching Didier Drogba secure a 1-0 FA Cup final win over Manchester United at the new Wembley with an extra-time winner, Mourinho said he had no doubt that he would be staying in London.

"I am moving house, because you (the media) have shown my address to the whole world, but I am not going back to Portugal. I love this club, I love living in this country and I don't want to leave," Mourinho said after adding an FA Cup triumph to the two Premiership titles and two League Cup trophies he has won with Chelsea.

Mourinho's disappearance down the tunnel as soon as the final whistle blew on Saturday immediately reignited the rumours that tensions beteween him and Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, would lead to a parting of the ways.

But the manager said he had simply gone to find a quiet spot to phone his family. "It is a big victory for me and at this important moment in my life I wanted to speak with my wife and kids, so I went to make a couple of phone calls and then came back to the field."

Asked if he had any doubt that he would still be the Chelsea boss next season, Mourinho gave a withering reply.

"If you have doubts, what can I do. I can't do anything about it. I have a contract, I want to stay, the club told me they want me to stay. I look at them as honourable people, not as liars, so when they say publicly they want me to manager next season, I have no reason to doubt.

"The only way to stop this (speculation) will be on July 9 in Los Angeles (when Chelsea begin a pre-season tour) and I will be there."

Although United had enjoyed the better chances in the 115 minutes that preceded Drogba's winner, Mourinho insisted that Chelsea had deserved their victory on Saturday and could not resist a jibe at Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

"My feeling was that we could be here three hours and they would not have scored a goal," he said. "We controlled the game so well defensively. We know the way they want to play and we did not give them that game."

Predictably, Mourinho's interpretation was disputed by Ferguson, who described the contest as a "stalemate" that neither side had deserved to win.

The Scot admitted that several of his players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, had looked jaded at the end of a hard season.

"You can't do much about goals when they come as late as that," he said. "We were too tired to mount any challenge but that is football.

"I didn't think we played well. We didn't deserve to win the game, or lose it - it was one of those games. There was not enough attacking momentum from either side to deserve to win the match.

"We had the better chances but it was a stalemate really. The pitch was slow which didn't help and we had two or three players who looked tired. They have played a lot of matches and it is understandable. Cristiano looked a bit tired, he has had a long season for a young lad."

United came agonisingly close to taking the lead at the end of the first period of extra-time, when Ryan Giggs slid in to meet a low Wayne Rooney cross. Petr Cech saved but Giggs's momentum carried him into the goalkeeper and the ball crossed the line in his arms.

Ferguson acknowledged that the linesman would have been unable to see clearly that the ball had crossed over, but he insisted referee Steve Bennett should have awarded a penalty for what he saw as a foul on Giggs by Michael Essien.

The United boss went on to suggest that Mourinho had succeeded in influencing the official with his pre-match comments.

"He does it before every big game. There's 22 players out there and he's talking about the referee all week - maybe it works for him. I was disappointed with the referee, for an FA Cup final I would have expected better."

Despite his disappointment at missing out on a fourth league and cup double at the helm of United, Ferguson said the club had had a fantastic season.

"We set out with the Premier League as our priority and we excelled ourselves in that respect," he said.

(China Daily via AFP May 21, 2007)

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