'Managers are joining the Premier League' - Mourinho compared football now to when he began his managerial career

Mourinho has been one of the top managers in his managerial career, managing clubs in several football leagues.

The Portuguese made his mark in the Premier League, having coached the likes of Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea.

Preparing for another preseason with Fenerbahçe in the Algarve, José Mourinho sat down for an interview with Canal 11, via Abola.

He discussed the evolution of football over the past 25 years, the span of his managerial career, but first, he emphasised his enduring passion for the game.

"What fuels me? I want to win the next game. I love what I do. I can't find any reason to stop, to not feel young. I have a family that keeps motivating me, telling me I still have a lot to give and achieve.

"I don't see any difference between the Mourinho who started over 20 years ago and the one today – in how I prepare for seasons and training sessions, how I experience training, how I build relationships with those I work with. I can't see any difference at all. I can't even envision the day when I'll say, 'Look, it's coming, I'll do another five, ten years.' I just can't," he began, adding that managing is more complex today.

"It's harder to be a manager today. It's more difficult in some ways, easier in others. The game has changed; it's different in terms of training and the specialization of coaching staff. Early on, I said the manager was already a sort of general manager – imagine now. Players' sporting education, the media...

"The most important thing today is having top-notch PR, because the world thrives on perceptions. It used to be that whoever won the most was the best, now it's not like that. Now, it's whoever creates the best perceptions that is the best," he explained, elaborating on the idea with examples.

"I arrived in the Premier League in 2004, a European champion, and that year only two foreign managers joined the Premier League: myself and the UEFA Cup winner, Benítez. He won with Valencia and went to Liverpool; I won with FC Porto and went to Chelsea. Nowadays, managers are joining the Premier League whose names I don't even know, and I'm not saying that disrespectfully; it's truly the reality.

"Some managers are chosen based on dates, numbers – numbers not related to victories. Perceptions are created, and today the big idea being sold is that playing a certain way, appearing a certain way, is more important than winning... In that respect, things have changed radically," he stated, acknowledging that his debut season in Turkey didn't go as planned.

"Pressure to win here? That's my fault, no one else's. Because I've won so often. I didn't win at Tottenham; I had little time there but reached a final that I wasn't allowed to manage – I was sacked two days prior. At Roma, I won and reached another European final. Fenerbahçe is truly the first club where I've spent a full season without reaching a final or winning a title," he affirmed.