Kevin Garside: Jose Mourinho faces biggest test against old friends Chelsea at San Siro

By Kevin Garside Published: 7:30AM GMT twenty-two February 2010

Ready for battle: Jose Mourinho"s Inter Milan will be looking to reach the entertain finals of the Champions League at Chelsea"s responsibility Photo: REUTERS

Mourinho is in jeopardy with a hillside in status. Good, yes, but special? Failure to swell to the quarter-final theatre opposite English antithesis for the second unbroken deteriorate would frequency raise his explain to a coaching bullion card. It competence even lead to a spell in footballing rehab and, you never know, a long, rather than longing, see in the mirror.

He parades around Italy similar to a man in exile, cursed by pass and mental disorder to the hire of outsider. "In England you"re shown apply oneself if you"re a unfamiliar manager who comes in and offers his experience and knowledge. In Italy, this apply oneself usually comes if you"re innate as an Italian. Someone similar to me, the foreigner, isn"t deliberate estimable of being here."

Mourinho knows distance of Chelsea exam Special ties stir Mourinho Sneijder improved than Beckham? Alan Smith: Chelsea notice timely Chelsea players warned over pale headlines Sport on radio

Righto, Jose, that"s because you are the top paid manager in Serie A. That old saying, "to have a crony one contingency initial be a friend", has nonetheless to find the approach in to Mourinho"s word book.

By clarification his critique embraces Carlo Ancelotti, a spoken advocate of the anti-Jose coterie and the manager at his throat on Wednesday. It smacks some-more of the approach he sees himself rather than how others see him. In tone, if not sentiment, it is the kind of dart he threw in targeted areas during his time in England. Remember Arsène Wenger the "voyeur"?

Mourinho pines for England and for Chelsea, though his ego would not concede him to admit the latter. He accidentally points to the mostly pot-less state of Stamford Bridge, one FA Cup, given his departure. When he ran the King"s Road he banked dual championships, dual Carling Cups and an FA Cup, don"t you know.

His initial deteriorate at Inter Milan returned a fourth unbroken scudetto but no allege in the Champions League. Inter go in to the Chelsea tie again buttressed by a championship lead, 7 points. So what? Roberto Mancini rattled off a hat-trick of titles and was sent on his approach by Inter authority Massimo Moratti.

The oil aristocrat is not swayed by in accord with arguments. He does not wish to listen to about the bankrupt inlet of the made at home plea post-calciopoli, the 2006 betting liaison that tore detached Italian football. He could not give a damn about the prevalence of the Premier League in Europe given the spin of the millennium.

He is the fourth son of Angelo, the head of the Inter family during the club"s golden duration in the late Fifties and early Sixties. And he is looking Angelo"s post-mortem approval, a really Italian energetic and potentially an unplayable palm for His Speciality, as Carlo Ancelotti likes to boot him. Moratti wants bona fide European bling on his Lake Como sideboard. He brought in Mourinho to win the Champions League. Nothing else will do.

Mourinho can frequency protest given he used the European Cup"s gold heat to raise his own station in the game. The "welcome to me" debate delivered on his attainment in England in Jun 2004 after his feat with Porto defines him still; the "Special One". Mourinho was a man roving his impulse in time, a temporal surfer cresting a call that cleared him similar to value on the English shore.

In law we didn"t know majority about him. There was the touchline dance at Old Trafford following Costinha"s felicitous injury-time equaliser opposite Manchester United that sent Porto by to the Champions League quarter-finals. Before that a critical delight over Celtic in the 2003 Uefa Cup final. Not sufficient to erect a arguable composite.

Victory over Monaco in the 2004 Champions League last at Gelsenkirchen was his pass to the majority desired posting in the bar game. The Champions League is again Mourinho"s barometer. Over dual legs commencement in the San Siro on Wednesday and 3 weeks as a result in London, Mourinho submits to hearing by a Chelsea group fabricated mostly by him. As he puts it, take Nicolas Anelka, Branislav Ivanovic and Yuri Zhirkov out of the equation and "you have roughly the same patrol I left".

Obviously Chelsea would have won the Champions League had he not over in late Sep 2007. The further of Lucio, Wesley Schneijder and Samuel Eto"o creates this Inter group improved versed than the one that lost at the same theatre a year ago to Manchester United.

There is some-more at interest than a quarter-final place. This is Mourinho"s possibility to show Roman Abravomich he was wrong, to show Ancelotti who is boss, to show England what it is missing, to show that he is special, still. Defeat, however, represents some-more than a loss. It says Roman was right, that Ancelotti is right, that Mourinho is mortal after all.