Cole recalls Mourinho's rant at Chelsea star where he threatened to play kit man

19 January 2024 , 12:02

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Cole recalls Mourinho's rant at Chelsea star where he threatened to play kit man

Joe Cole has recalled how Jose Mourinho threatened to play the kit man ahead of Ricardo Carvalho after a below-par performance.

The Portuguese centre-half was a consistent performer for Chelsea but after an error-strewn display, he faced the wrath of the Special One. Carvalho has been a favourite under Mourinho, who signed him from Porto, but he let rip at the defender in the dressing room.

Cole claims there was no great reason to hammer Carvalho, but he still went for him as he listed the players he was now prepared to play ahead of him. Once he'd finished listing all the squad members Mourinho allegedly went on to list staff members.

Cole told The Obi One Podcast: "It was a belter when he dug out Riccy Carvalho. Riccy's his boy, he took him everywhere and loved him, but I don't know why (he went for him). There was sometimes no rhyme or reason for it (his dressing downs). He never played badly for more than two games, hardly ever made a mistake.

"He's gone to Riccy 'You're f***ing s***. I'm not going to play you. I'm going to play JT then Gallas. Then I'm going to play Robert Huth then I'm going to play the youth kid Steve Watt. If I don't play him, I'm going to play the kit man, I'm not going to play you'. And I get the giggles when there's things like that."

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Cole himself wasn't immune from the manager's wrath, who arrived a year after the playmaker had moved to Stamford Bridge from West Ham. The Englishman had to battle for his spot with Arjen Robben and Damien Duff providing stern competition.

Ricardo Carvalho was a Jose Mourinho favourite - but that didn't stop him from getting a verbal battering

The former Blue was known for having a bag of tricks but we pulled off one too many for Mourinho's liking and, despite putting in an impressive performance, was told to ease off it he wanted to keep playing.

"I loved Jose but people always think we had a bad relationship," he said. "I played a league game and we won 3-0 at home. I set two goals up, thought I played well, but probably took a few little flicks around.

"I've gone through one-on-one with the keeper late on and should've slotted it in but instead I gave it to Crespo, but he's not run anywhere near it and the defenders got it. I thought nothing of it, but we were doing the warm down the next day and Mourinho came over and he said, 'See you do that s*** again boy you'll never f***ing play for me again' and I was like, 'What?'".

Samuel Meade