Mourinho values watches — and has time on his side

Jose Mourinho has a ritual that he adheres to at the end of every season in which he wins a trophy.

“I take my watch from my wrist and I don’t wear it again,” the Chelsea manager revealed ahead of their Premier League match against Hull City at Stamford Bridge last night. “I have a big collection! I keep it. They (the watches) are in a safe box.

“Instead of medals or this or that I keep a watch. It’s one thing that I keep safe. Like people keep medals or shirts, I keep my watches.

“Another thing is that if I don’t win, the watch becomes a normal watch. But when I finish a season with a trophy, that season is represented with a watch.”

The watches clearly mean more to Mourinho than the medals — having tossed his Premier League winner’s medal into the crowd at Stamford Bridge back in 2006, when Chelsea won their second title under him. The medal later sold at an auction for £16,800 (S$34,600).

Mourinho’s watches are probably even more valuable. “I have 21,” he said to reflect the number of titles and cups he has won throughout his career with Porto, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and with two spells at Chelsea.

However, if Mourinho goes through a season without winning a trophy, he will start the next campaign with the same watch. Admittedly, it has not happened very often.

His favourite watch, Mourinho said, “is the last one because I made it, I designed it and the company did it for me according to my needs. To my needs to be on the bench — according to the colour I want, the material I want, the size and the weight. I designed it with the company. It’s my watch.”

Does he have a favourite brand? “In this moment, I have a deal by a sponsor. Previously no,” Mourinho said with the expense of the watch reflecting his rising status as a manager. The first ones were, therefore, a lot cheaper.

“Previously, it was only a watch that I could feel comfortable with as a watch. Especially when I come from the times (at the start of my career in Portugal) when not every stadium had a digital clock and even if some did, they finished at 90 minutes.”

Mourinho’s current watch — as advertised by the Swiss company Hublot on whose website he describes himself as a watch fanatic — is the King Power Jose Mourinho, with apparently only 350 having been made. It is blue with a sapphire dial and crystal and costs about £17,000. Another one will be “retired” should Chelsea win the Premier League title this season.

“If you don’t have this passion for the job, this desire to get results, you have all the reasons to stop. If I don’t stop and if I think I want to work for 15 or 20 more years, it’s exactly because I feel that happiness.”

With Louis van Gaal having revealed to Telegraph Sport that Manchester United would be his last job in management, Mourinho paid tribute to the 63-year-old.

“I know that he had a dream to coach his country in a World Cup. He did that. He coached, with huge success, the club of his heart, AZ. He coached with success the top club in his country, Ajax,” said Mourinho, 52.

“He coached two of the best clubs in the world, Barcelona and Bayern, champions with both. Now, finally, he comes to a country he has never worked in to coach one of the biggest clubs in the world. His career is perfect; his career is beautiful.

“I want to coach Portugal in a World Cup or European Championships — away in the future — but if I don’t do, I don’t do. There is not a drama. My career is beautiful; I just want to carry on and enjoy many more years because I am too young (to think of retiring).”

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Jason Burt is the Daily Telegraph’s deputy football correspondent.