Jose Mourinho wasn’t afraid to get on the wrong side of his players and dished out plenty of threats in training at Chelsea.
That’s according to Gary Cahill who has revealed just how the Portuguese infuriated him during his trophy-laden spell at Stamford Bridge.
The centre-back joined the Blues from Bolton in January 2012 and went on to win the Premier League under Mourinho three years later.
Cahill was partnered at the back with John Terry, who previously told John Obi Mikel about one instance of their legendary manager’s rage.
Terry revealed how Mourinho threatened to sign the then Real Madrid star Raphael Varane and ‘another top defender’ to replace his centre-backs after they messed up a training drill.
And when asked on Mikel’s The Obi One Podcast if he remembers it, he confirmed he did and explained how he reacted to it.
“I was taken aback,” the eventual Chelsea captain said. “I was shocked by it, to be fair it p***** me off massively.
“But you know what, that was him though wasn’t it? The mind games, he was clever with stuff like that.
“He knew he’d get a reaction, especially off the character of me and John, he knew that he would get a reaction and he did. I was fuming.”
When Terry spoke on the incident, he added further insight when he said: “I remember we’d won the league one year at Chelsea and me and Gary Cahill came back in pre-season.
“At the time we didn’t realise why he’d done it, but we’d signed a few new big players and we did this possession game where me and Gaz played the ball into midfield. There’s no space to play it into midfield but you have to go through midfield to get into the other third.
“Me and Gaz are feeding it, it’s getting intercepted, we’re conceding goals and he’s [Mourinho] stopped the session. I’m captain, Gaz is vice-captain and he says: ‘See you two, you can f*** off.’
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“I’ll go and sign [Raphael] Varane and I’ll sign another top defender in the world and spend £100m and you two can sit on the bench and watch them. Me and Gaz were like, ‘f****** hell we won the league last year.’
“We couldn’t believe it. Me and Gaz looked at each other and said ‘right, game on’. For the rest of the session, all me and Gaz did was kick absolute lumps out of everyone.
“Afterwards he put his arms around me and Gaz walking off the pitch and went ‘that’s why you’re my captain and vice-captain.”
Mourinho didn’t sign Varane, who went on to join Chelsea’s Premier League rivals Manchester United instead in 2021 before leaving this summer.
He stuck with Terry and Cahill but left the Blues for the second time late on in 2015 before the club finished a dismal 12th in the league.
However, the centre-backs redeemed themselves in the following season as they were part of Chelsea’s title winning squad under Antonio Conte.
Legendary club captain Terry left after their triumph and the armband was given to Cahill, who led them to glory in the FA Cup and Europa League.
Cahill departed in 2019 after making 290 appearances for Chelsea in all competitions, with whom he won two Premier League titles, the Champions League, two Europa Leagues, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
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