José Mourinho has confirmed Chelsea’s first-team doctor Eva Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn will not be on the bench for Sunday’s game against Manchester City but the Chelsea manager opened the door for the pair to return later in the season.
Speaking at his weekly press conference before the trip to the Etihad Stadium, the Portuguese read out a pre-prepared statement addressing the furore over his medical staff after last weekend’s match against Swansea.
“Dr Jon Fearn and Dr Eva Carneiro will not be on the bench but doesn’t mean for the rest of the season,” he said. “My decision does not mean they won’t be on the bench in the future. If you want to speak to me about football, I’m here. If you want to ask about other things, I’m not here.”
Asked if he regretted his outburst, Mourinho replied: “You can take your own conclusions. My relationship with everyone who works with me, or the majority of them is an open relationship, it’s open to disagreements. It’s an emotional space, if there are bad reactions, football is football and the match is the match and everything in the match can be different. After the meeting I had with my medical department, the feedback I got, it allows us to have this kind of relationship.
“I want to say I have a fantastic medical department led by Dr Paco Biosca, I have a good relationship with them. With more than a dozen professionals between doctors, physios, masseurs – I have a very good relationship with them. They tell me all the time that they were never praised as much as they were by me in the last two years.
“Normally when things go well managers keep it to themselves, I have praised them lots of times in the last couple of years and they don’t forget that. They also told me that we have had disagreements during that period, we need disagreements to improve. We work together and we improve together, that is the way we do things. It is a relationship that is open to disagreement.”
Mourinho also responded to Arsène Wenger’s suggestion that a fractured atmosphere in the dressing room can damage the wellbeing of a club. “If somebody thinks that a disagreement between manager and medical can affect team, they don’t have a clue,” he said.
Chelsea are close to completing the signing of Baba Rahman from the German club Augsburg for an initial fee of £14m. Once completed, the Ghana defender will become only the club’s third arrival of the summer after Asmir Begovic and Radamel Falcao on loan but Mourinho insisted he was happy with the additions made to the squad.
“If Chelsea supporters are worried about the window ... since Mr Abramovich bought the club, Chelsea fans cannot speak in a negative way about the club. They can only praise the board,” he said.
“If we are not top of the league in relation to the spenders, it doesn’t mean that people should be worried. The window is not closed. Secondly, we don’t always have to be champion in the market. We do things when we think we have to do. At the right moment.
“When we didn’t buy a striker two years ago, and people were disappointed, we didn’t buy one because we knew that Diego Costa was coming, for an agreed price. Sometimes you have to think more than the moment. We work inside. The owner is the owner and he will be the owner for many, many years. The board has such a close relationship with the owner. The board just gave me a four-year contract. We are in great stability.”
