There was no hint that Claudio Ranieri was trying to dampen expectation. His message was unambiguous. After Sir Alex Ferguson had identified Chelsea as "the danger", the Italian was dismissing his team's championship chances faster than you can say Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Dodgy translation? Not a bit of it. Ranieri's English has improved so much, perhaps since Dennis Wise's departure, that he was talking without an interpreter. Despite spending more than £40m in 11 months, £32.9m this summer, Chelsea's head coach believes he is at least a year off the title.
"This season it's very difficult because in my opinion there are four teams better than Chelsea at the moment," he said. "There is Manchester United, Leeds, Liverpool and Arsenal, who have been playing together for a long time. The building is made for them and I build now."
For a manager at Stamford Bridge who has set the target of winning the title within the three years of his contract, Ranieri seemed remarkably relaxed over lunch at a hotel near the club's training ground. Showing an amiable, animated side little seen last season, the 49-year-old even sat with a napkin over his head at one point. "Don't worry, be happy," he remarked when reminded he could be sacked.
Without doubt Ranieri thinks things are moving in the right direction. As Ferguson noted, Chelsea bought quality in Emmanuel Petit; in Boudewijn Zenden and Jesper Gronkjaer they finally have much-needed width, plus greater speed on the counter-attack. Throw in Frank Lampard, 23, and the French defender William Gallas, 24, and there is a younger, leaner feel to the squad.
But then talent has rarely been lacking at the Bridge in recent seasons. Fight has been the problem. So although Ranieri talked with good reason of the time his new midfield will require to settle and his determination to tighten the defence, he was most animated on one subject: the need to match Manchester United's character. Without it he knows the title cannot be won.
"I want my players to have that same mentality, that same hunger," he said. "It has improved but sometimes it is high, sometimes low. At Manchester it is always high. It is like a pneumatic drill. Ddd-dew, ddd-dew, ddd-dew. I want my Chelsea to be a pneumatic drill. Dd-doom, dd-doom . . ."
The arrival of Petit, a champion with France and Arsenal, is designed to help instil that winner's mentality and team ethic. The English backbone, though, will have to wait. John Terry apart, Ranieri sees no youngsters ready for the first team.
"You can cement the team mentality only through experience," he said. "You have to fight together, suffer together, win with luck, lose with bad luck. All these generate and cement the team mentality and the fighting spirit."
That is not to suggest Ken Bates, Chelsea's chairman, will be happy to endure a season of suffering in the cause of team spirit. The managing director Colin Hutchinson says the target is a top-four finish and thereby entry into the Champions League, and Ranieri accepts no less will suffice.
"I want to improve on last season," he said. "We finished sixth then and I want to be fourth." Given that he believes there are four superior teams it is no wonder he took his players to the picturesque Italian hamlet of Roccaporena, birthplace of the patron saint of lost causes St Rita, for pre-season training.
His improved English has lightened the atmosphere and, he believes, will remove the confusion caused last season when he changed tactics during matches.
"I like to change the system," he said. "I think the future of football lies with being able to change the system in the same game. I have intelligent players and if they are used to changing it is no problem.
"Sometimes the players ask me: 'Mister, why don't we play 3-4-3?' Or: 'Why don't we play 4-4-2?' In my opinion it is no good. Every system has problems and if against Newcastle [tomorrow] Bobby Robson finds the counter-measures I must change."
With Lampard allowed to get forward, two wingers in the squad and Hasselbaink guaranteed goals, Chelsea should be entertaining.
The test comes not so much at home to Newcastle as at Southampton a week today. Ranieri is right to suggest he is behind his main rivals when it comes to team-building, but the talent is there. "Chelsea do not have the mentality yet," he said, "but I will be the pneumatic drill for my players."
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