JOSE MOURINHO yesterday extended a clear invitation to his former Chelsea charges such as Frank Lampard to join him at Internazionale as he pushes for Champions League honours.
Asked about his reported pursuit of Chelsea stars at his first meeting with the press in Milan, Mourinho said: "Almost all of them want to work with me again in the future and the same goes for me. I have a great relationship with almost all of my players and it is normal that these rumours spread."
Mourinho, who is widely suspected of handing Inter a list of players he would like to sign including Lampard, Michael Essien and Ricardo Carvalho, was cautious, however, about the reaction of his former chairman Roman Abramovich.
"It depends on whether Chelsea want to sell - there has got to be a relation between what one club wants and what another club wants to do."
A club official said it was pure coincidence that Inter chairman Massimo Moratti was scheduled to be in London yesterday, claiming he was flying in only to open an exhibition of photos celebrating the club's centenary this year. Moratti did not turn up at the event, held at the Italian Cultural Institute last night.
Mourinho, however, insisted he only needed a maximum of two or three new players. "I like the squad and I have faith in them," he said. "I have seen a lot of Inter's matches during the season and I appreciated the team's mentality."
Deftly handling questions in Italian at the press conference, Mourinho declined to be drawn on the Lampard question, stating: "I am no pirla," a Milanese slang word for idiot that drew applause from the massed ranks of Italian journalists.
Clearly on a charm offensive, the Portuguese coach renounced his self-dubbed title of 'Special One'. "I have arrived at a special club, and when a club is like this the coach becomes an extra person," he said. "I'm not forgetting that I'm a great coach, but I don't want to be special."
Once in his stride, however, he could not resist claiming that "Serie A isn't currently the best championship in the world," but could yet rediscover its 1980s and 1990s form, thanks in part to his arrival. "I want to bring joy to Inter in the same way I brought it to Chelsea."
Despite winning three Serie A titles on the trot, Inter is still a club in need of joy after failing to make a dent in the Champions League and following the dramatic departure of their coach Roberto Mancini, who was sacked last week.
In a statement, the club said Mancini's threat to resign after Inter's last 16 Champions League defeat to Liverpool was behind their decision to get rid of him, and hinted that the club's reputation had also been sullied by Mancini's unwise, but apparently innocent, contacts with a local tailor who is being investigated for drug dealing.
Rival fans in Italy delight in pointing out that the first of Inter's three successive titles was won by default after Juventus were stripped of the 2006 scudetto thanks to the Calciopoli scandal.
The second was won as Juventus toiled in Serie B, while this year's was secured on the final day after Inter squandered an 11-point lead. Roma finished three points behind, with their midfielder Daniele de Rossi grumbling that Inter had been favoured by referees.
Even as Mancini struggled to win back the dressingroom after his rash resignation threats in March, Moratti was wooing Mourinho, the new coach revealed yesterday. How Mourinho now tackles his amiable, but very hands-on, chairman will be the key to whether he in turn lasts out his three-year contract.
Having switched managers 14 times since he bought Inter in 1995, Moratti may test the maverick Portuguese's craving for autonomy, but he does look set to loosen the purse strings for a few key purchases.
Guardian Service
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