Jose Mourinho today demanded English football show Chelsea some "respect" as he continued his litany of complaints about the end of the season.

Mourinho was again terse and grumpy during the broadcast section of his news conference at the club's Cobham headquarters, responding to a series of questions with minimal answers.

The Chelsea boss insisted he did not feel "free" to answer for fear of another FA charge – he is currently facing his third of the season for his remarks about referee Mike Dean and officials' chief Mike Riley.

But that changed, briefly, in response to a question from the television commentator who will be on the microphone at Anfield on Sunday, who asked if the the Blues' fans did not want their side to go to Merseyside to win.

"No," replied Mourinho. "I think Chelsea fans want Chelsea FC to be respected and to get the respect Chelsea FC deserves.

"They know what Chelsea have done for the club and for English football for the last 10 years.

"They've been the most important club to defend this country in European competitions: they won the Champions League, they won the Europa League, they think Chelsea deserve more respect that they are getting.

"So they want Chelsea to go to Liverpool and play, as always, at the maximum, giving everything they have. Which players? That's our decision, not your decision."

Mourinho had earlier confirmed skipper John Terry has a chance of recovering from his ankle injury to face Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.

As regards his team selection for Anfield, though, Mourinho maintained his talks with the Chelsea board and the squad were ''private''.

Quizzed if fielding a weakened team might be against the spirit of the competition, he replied: ''Ask the competition. I cannot answer.

"You want me to laugh or to cry? I can't say the truth because I don't feel free.

"Every time I speak, there's a consequence. Even when I think the referee is amazing, there's a reason to be charged. So I don't feel free at all. If you want a better press conference, speak with the FA.

"The most important thing for me is my club, and the supporters of my club. They're the most important thing for me. My club and Chelsea supporters.

"I have to defend my club, and I have to defend Chelsea supporters.

"And, if we are not helped to try to follow our dreams and our objectives, one more reason for us to close ranks, to try and think about us and only about us."

Mourinho pointed out that, while Atletico also play on Sunday, that is only because their opponents, Valencia, were in Europa League action on Thursday evening.

Ruling out any idea that he might quit Chelsea for the vacant Manchester United job - "I don't know how someone could think about it.

"They play Sunday because they play, luckily for us, Valencia and they played in the Europa League.

"If they'd played another team, they would be playing today and they would have 48 hours more than us to rest.

"'We have to work in the maximum of our possibilities, to give everything to our club, to make our families proud of us as good, professional honest people, and we have to sleep well at night. That is all."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/defiant-jose-mourinho-wants-see-3456266#ixzz2zuphmrpT

Few points :

1. FA Is a joke for charging him . It is like EPL is under dictatorship ...so much less freedom that I heard USA considering to invade to EPL . I thought England has freedom of speech . If referees deserves a praise , he should not get punished for it and even if referee deserves criticism . They should be investigated and evaluated and if needed educated about their mistakes .

2. Respect : This might sound little strong but If it was not for Manchester United and Chelsea for the past 10 years , EPL probably would not have 4th spot .

3. FA Support : FA Money hungry organization somehow expects to be best league in the world while still making things difficult for English Clubs in Europe . How much obstacle did they face in rescheduling the match ? None .

4. Liverpool match : Chelsea has every right to field any team they want to against LIverpool. If FA worries about spirit of competition then why the fck they won't move our game to Saturday or even Friday ? Liverpool agreed and other clubs would have agree to switch with our fixture .

He's got a good point about the respect.

I don't know if I'm behind the idea of the FA attempting to alter schedules to help out certain teams though. That... doesn't sound like it would end well. ;)

Works fine in Spain , France, Germany , Italy . or do you mean obligations they have under broadcasting deals ?

I strongly feel that if clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona can protest to the Spanish FA to change their schedules in order to make Champions League matches easier (get more rest and time to prepare for them), Chelsea FC and other British clubs in the Champions League should be given the same right. Because in the end, Chelsea's presence in the semi-finals is more important to England than Valencia, Sevilla, Real, and Atletico's positions in the semi-finals for Spain. Chelsea is the only English club remaining, and the English FA should do their best to help the next CL winner to be an English club.

If the lack of respect continues, It will only be a matter of time until only 3 EPL teams are chosen. Chelsea have been consistent over the last decade. Even having the previous league game a day earlier makes a big difference.

FA doesn't give jack sh!t about the teams. All they care for is money.. money... money.. just wait and see the 4th spot get away from EPL because they don't get the help other teams in other leagues get. Then they'll regret this crap...

Totally agree with this thread. +1.

Totally agree, it would be better for EPL in general, EPL is as down as it can be so...

@dynastian +1 , if English clubs try to protest , they will immediately get charged . Governing body of English football mostly consists of people who have never played football and they only care about money .

I am glad everyone agrees on this . Mourinho been saying this since the beginning of the season . He has even stood up for Manchester City . I know Arsene Wenger has been also a critic of the match scheduling but not as a loud as Mourinho did this season . Nonetheless , Wenger spoke out unlike other managers .

I would love for more managers to speak out, including those who play in Europa League . And Not only when it matters for the their OWN club, but also speak out on behalf of other clubs . Maybe then it will alert FA when they see many clubs are not happy with fixtures .

Main problem is not the amount of matches that each player plays but the way those matches are scheduled , which leaves less time for player to recover from match to match . Players become injury prone and we as fans do not get the entreatment that we expect , because managers are forced to sacrifice some matches in favor of other match .

Everyone remembers when Chelsea simply gave up on EPL and went " all in " in Champions League 2012 . Eventually , we won it but we could have lost it and loosing CL spot would have created serious problems during our transition year . United did same this year and it did not work .

In my opinion , FA is not only killing English clubs in Europe but also English national team . How ? Other than the fact that English players show up to tournaments exhausted morally and physically , they show up with less desire to compete .

Also , English clubs to stay competitive , in such severe fixtures ,are forced bring developed foreign players or foreign talent and young english players stay in the shadows of those foreign players . Ofcourse it is not main reason but they are not even having a chance to shine . Unless it is some Capital One cup against small team . So, when FA points fingers at clubs for choosing foreign talent and it ruins English national team , they should look at themselves for creating difficult environment for clubs which forces them to overlook young english players . Again not the main reason but in my opinion one of the reasons .

@Marcus

I personally feel that the underachievement of the English national team is the fault of not just the FA, but more so of the clubs, but that's a different debate.

Concerning your statement on EPL teams playing too many games, you're right. I think that one solution may be to get the teams in the EPL out of either the FA Cup, or to just make the FA Cup the only cup competition in England. The Capitol One Cup seems useless to me if the revenue attained from it (100,000 Pounds) is nowhere near the revenue received from winning the FA Cup (1,800,000 pounds in 2009/10, which is 10 times more than the COC). It's just not worth it. Having two domestic cups puts strains on the EPL clubs who are competing in 4 competitions at once (COC, FAC, EPL, CL/EL). It's just not worth it in the end.

EDIT:: For example, Spain intentionally schedules all the Copa del Rey matches involving Segunda and Primera Division teams to be in late December, and throughout the entire month of January. This is the perfect time, because no European competitions go on during that time. It's a blank schedule with just La Liga matches, and the Spanish FA take advantage of that, and it makes sure that Spanish teams have more rest later on the season (when rest becomes one of the key factors contributing to form. Just look at how much L'pool are benefiting from a lack of European competition. If they were in CL/EL, the EPL winner would've been either City or Chelsea). England should adopt a similar schedule.

@Dynastian

I fully agree with you. The Capital One Cup should be dropped and the FA Cup should take place in January. Liverpool have had their "European Holiday" and will do well in the CL next year. Also, with January being based around the FA Cup teams should play league games more often. With the World Cup taking place, there should be no need for major International Breaks.

I agree , nothing to add here .

Agree for this, something needs to be done in term of schedules, i want to hear your point guys about the boxing day ?
Arsenal this year were the most exposed team to this matter that doesnt exist in any other League, and could be very inequitable depending on your schedjule in this focal moment of the season, and could maybe explain ( not sure ) the abscence of English teams in the Europa League final rounds past years...
How could a limited budget team compete in England in this case ?

The absence of English teams in the EL latter stages is pretty much down to three things:

1) A lot of the time it's teams like Wigan, Stoke or Newcastle who are in there because of improbable cup success (winning the Cap One Cup etc) who are not at the level to compete with teams like Napoli, Porto and Basel.

2) Some teams are there because they got knocked out of the CL group (like United a couple of years ago), and want to get the hell out of the EL as soon as they can, so as to avoid damage to their league campaign.

3) The other teams in there (the Liverpools and Tottenhams etc who get there from league position) are usually too preoccupied with getting to 4th place, and the extra money/exposure from entrance into the CL.

No-one in England wants to be in the EL, really. Look at Chelsea last year: 3rd place was far more important to them than the win in Amsterdam, and their team now is not a million miles from what it was then, either.

It's true that the PL's coefficient is suffering because of this, but, ultimately that's a fair price to pay for the competitive nature of the league. The PL became a monster, and now it's eating itself until it finds a new equilibrium. I don't think that it's right to try and adjust the domestic schedules so as to help out certain teams with their European cup ties, even though I appreciate that many leagues do.

I even concede that it's possible this is why England as a nation has underperformed, but I don't believe that's the case, honestly. I think that's more to do with the poor treatment of our academies, but, either way, it seems like a bad precedent to set to change it. Because where do you stop?

Anyhow. I'm just a purist in that regard.

Actually i think only Chelsea has enough maturity and experience to compete in Europe, i think its more about the hard schedjules than the League strenght...

Even Liverpool showed his lack of experience against a very experimented squad ( Chelsea ), the second best team imo is Man City who can keep progressing but cant compete with Europeen big four.
Chelsea is the only dangerous team in England this year, in direct confrontations against English big clubs they have no problem at all to get the result they want even without a world class in form striker....

If you look to Spain for example, 4 teams out of 7 are in Semi final of CL and EL, 6 out of 7 in quarters, knowing that Barça and Betis were eleminated by Spanish sides, only Sociedad had a disastrous Europeen season...
Schedjules can give some excuses, but it cant explain everything, the level of English big teams has decreased or didnt match other big teams progression, and still FA doesnt help their teams to keep competition.

FA should really thanks Mourinho and his ugly but efficient tactics, Chelsea past years are PL savers and English Uefa coeff...
I dont know yet if they should be respected by Europeen monsters, but they should be respected 300 per cent in England.

@tiki: And you know what's scary about that? Even though some call us the best team in England currently, they always forget that we are still going through a transitional period. Try to imagine Chelsea in 2-3 years time. One word: scary.

"the level of English big teams has decreased or didnt match other big teams progression,"

That's not really the case, in the way you're putting it. As I said: the English teams who get in the EL according to league position simply don't WANT to be there. They want to be in the CL, and there are so many horses fighting for those Top 4 slots that you simply cannot afford to waste time on a second-tier competition.

Maybe Spanish teams take that second-tier competition more seriously. It would certainly be expected, since the league is normally such a 2-horse race, and since this is the first time in around 10 years that any team other than Madrid or Barca have gotten to the CL semis (and Barcelona is still the only Spanish team to get to the final for, well, over 10 years). In that time, Spanish teams have been having a LOT of success in the EL, but, are still no closer to getting anywhere in the CL.

It's two different animals, and the constant competition in the PL is what has the greatest effect. Put simply: no-one in England really gives a damn about the Europa League, and most contenders would rather ignore it altogether.

@Lodatz

"Some teams are there because they got knocked out of the CL group (like United a couple of years ago), and want to get the hell out of the EL as soon as they can, so as to avoid damage to their league campaign."

That's kind of a miserable excuse to pardon United's 5-3 defeat to 5th place Bilbao. The EL is still a title, and just how Chelsea did it last season, teams should try to win it. You make it sound like English teams are the only ones worrying about league form. Don't you think Bilbao were preoccupied with a Champions League spot and all that money from it too? They had to face Manchester United, and managed to beat them, while simultaneously managing their league form.

"That's kind of a miserable excuse to pardon United's 5-3 defeat to 5th place Bilbao."

Why? Just because you think it's not paying enough respect to the EL? United came 2nd in the league that year, only due to goal difference. Do you really think SAF gave a damn about the EL?

"You make it sound like English teams are the only ones worrying about league form. "

No, I make it sound as though the intensity of competition for the CL slots is fiercer and between more teams than in other leagues. That's because it is. Also, apparently other leagues help their teams out, so... ;)

"Don't you think Bilbao were preoccupied with a Champions League spot and all that money from it too? They had to face Manchester United, and managed to beat them, while simultaneously managing their league form."

Did they? I think you'll find they ended up 10th, that year.

They did try again the year after that, though, and got knocked out of the Group Stages of the EL, and came 12th in the league last year.

Are you quite sure they maintained their form?

@Lodatz

Yes they did.

In case you didn't notice, the difference between 10th place Bilbao and 6th place Levante was 6 points. Six points. Bilbao were 6th place, and set for an EL spot at week 35, but 3 losses in the last 4 matches (during which time, they had no other matches except for the lone EL final against Atletico). So you see, their league form didn't suffer because of the two-legged EL games. They suffered because of their own failure to perform, not because of their fitness.

"Do you really think SAF gave a damn about the EL?"

I didn't say that United didn't pay enough "respect" to the EL. Don't pull rabbits out of the hat. And I think that if you say SAF didn't give a damn about the EL because he wanted to maintain league form, you can say the same thing for United in the CL that season. Because they were in a group with Basel, Benfica, and Otelul Galati, and failed to win against both Basel and Benfica. I'm guessing you'll be saying that this was because of SAF "not giving a damn"?

And in fact, I certainly do think that SAF gave a damn. Why else would he put up a lineup containing De Gea, Evra, Jones, Smalling, Evans, Rafael, Park Ji-Sung, Giggs, Rooney, Hernandez, and Young? He even made very early substitutions by putting on Carrick and Nani, so yes, I think he gave a damn about losing at home to a mid-table Spanish club.

PS. When United faced Bilbao that season, they were on a 6 game winning streak, and would continue that form for two more matches even after the Bilbao games. So you see, both teams suffered in the league for their own shortcomings, not because they had too many games.

@Dynast: You do realize that by highlighting the fact that Biblao were battling hard for an EL slot, you're actually making my case for me, right? You see, none of the English teams who get an EL slot through league position WANT to be there. They WANT to be in the Top 4, competing in the Champions League.

The very fact that Bilbao were competing in the EL final and yet were not competing for a CL spot, shows you the toll that season in the EL took upon them.

And where are they now? Oh, look, they're 4th again, while all the teams toiling in the EL currently (Valencia and Sevilla) are miles off getting to the CL, and the ones who got knocked out of Europe early (Sociedad) have made a comeback. Well, apart from Betis, but my god did you people really think Betis were any good beforehand? Seriously?

Because the PL has been so fiercely competitive for longer, and because there are a greater number of horses in each race, they've learned to not freaking bother with this second-tier business.

By contrast, look at Liverpool, who had zero European commitments, got knocked out of their domestic cups early, and have blitzed their way through the rest of the TIRED league. Arsenal did the same last year to catch up Tottenham with that fantastic 3-month run of form. Do you think if they'd gone out in the Group Stage, and fell into the EL that Wenger would have bothered to try and win the damn thing, at the risk of not getting into the Top 4 again?

Wenger is much smarter than that.

"I didn't say that United didn't pay enough "respect" to the EL. Don't pull rabbits out of the hat"

Then what else is your problem with it?

*"And I think that if you say SAF didn't give a damn about the EL because he wanted to maintain league form, you can say the same thing for United in the CL that season. [...] *I'm guessing you'll be saying that this was because of SAF "not giving a damn"?

Well, no, because it was simply United showing the signs of what we've seen this season; they're not that great a squad, and were mainly held together by Fergie's will. That's why I believe he retired, in the end. He had won the league once more, he had got screwed in the CL and might not have another clear shot at a 3rd CL title, and saw that the squad needed serious work.

How about you don't pull any of your own rabbits, hmmm?