Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is banned from the stadium for the game at Stoke, but that hasn’t stopped him before – he once reportedly hid in a laundry basket in order to be smuggled into his team’s changing room.
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Mourinho was hit with a suspended ban, as well as a £50,000 fine, after he embarked on a seven-minute rant following Chelsea’s 3-1 loss to Southampton in October, claiming that referees were “scared” to give decisions to his side.
The ban means Mourinho must stay away from the Britannia Stadium and was imposed following his half-time dismissal at West Ham last month.
“No, because match is tomorrow, and I know result of that appeal already, so I chose to give up”, he said. “I think it’s stupid to fight a fight you know you will already lose”.
“I’m stopped not to just do my work, I’m stopped to go to a football stadium”.
When quizzed about where he plans to watch the tie, he said: “You can imagine that it’s not easy”.
“I repeat, if the FA want to punish me, they can punish me, they don’t punish other managers, they punish me – it’s not a problem for me”.
Mourinho received a £40,000 FA fine as well as the stadium ban for his actions and yesterday admitted he can never be the same again now in English football.
Serbian Nemanja Matić told the Guardian that it would be unusual to not have Mourinho giving instructions from the touchline, but insisted that the team would try and win for the punished Chelsea FC manager.
‘Maybe I sit on the street corner with my iPad, I don’t know, ‘ he told the media at his pre-match press conference at Cobham on Friday.
“If I can not contact with the game maybe I don’t even watch the game”.
Chelsea will be without their boss for Saturday’s crucial Premier League clash as he is serving a one-match stadium ban following his sending off against West Ham.
Mourinho added that on-loan Colombia striker Radamel Falcao will be sidelined for three weeks with a muscle injury.
But Hughes says Chelsea’s crisis – and Mourinho’s ban – are not his concern.
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“We have come up with plans and strategies to cope with us dominating, Stoke dominating, scorelines, they are prepared”.
