Jose Mourinho showed when he declared himself a "special one" on
the day he arrived at Chelsea that he does not underestimate his
own importance, and he has confirmed that by saying he makes an
"enormous contribution"
"There are managers who, at first sight, earn little but in reality
earn too much because they don't produce," he said. "Call me vain,
but I produce because there are titles.
Chelsea were hardly giving away tickets before Mourinho took over
but the former Porto coach's success has bred greater income and
his considerable personal marketability, including advertisement
work.
Mourinho, whose total annual earnings are estimated at £7.5m, told
the Portuguese magazine Maxima. "For clubs to pay me and the
players well, they have to generate an income.
A claim by Mourinho in the interview that Chelsea are almost
self-sufficient seemed hard to square with the enormous financial
underwriting of the club's owner Roman Abramovich and a £140m loss
for the year ending June 2005.
Chelsea's chief executive, Peter Kenyon, has said the club hope to
break even by 2009-10. "If we took away two or three
multimillion-pound signings from the budget, the club would run
itself," said Mourinho. That, though, would leave the manager with
a squad unlikely to achieve his or Abramovich's ambitions.
Andriy Shevchenko's signing this summer was part of a plan to lift
Chelsea on to a higher level, and the striker is confident he will
come good. I am not worried at all at this stage. It is normal that
it takes a while for a new player to get used to a new team and a
new style of football.
