SKY IS THE LIMIT...

"There are two kinds of people in this world : Winners and losers.

Inside each and every one of you at the very care of your being is a winner waiting to be awakened and unleasted upon the world.

With my nine-step "Refuse to lose" programme, you now have the necessery tools and the insight, and the knowhow to put your losing habits behind you and to go out and make your dreams come true. 

No hesitating. No complaining. And no excuses.

Now I want you to go out in the world and I want you to be winners.

Thank you!"

The fact that the club was improving but he has quickened that process. He has speeded everything up. And he has made everything feel more solid. He his in total control and he makes sure all of us are brimming with confidence. He is an excellent man-manager, a clever tactician and he prepares for the opposition more thoroughly than any manager I have ever known.

I know that when he was at Porto, he gave Paolo Ferreira a DVD of action involving Jerome Rothen before the Champions League Final. He does not give us DVD but he does give each of us a dossier before every game with detailed information about our opponents.

I liked Mourinho from day one. I had met him once before a couple of days before we flew out to Portugal for Euro 2008. He came to the England Hotel to talk to me and Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge and Lamps. Basically, he sat us down and told us we were going to win things. He turned to Lamps and said he believed he had just taken charge of the best midfielder in the world. He said to Coley that he wanted him to demonstrate the commitment and the maturity and the consistency to cement a regular place. He said he believed I was one of the best defenders in the world. He told us how he was going to come in and make things happen.

On the flight to Seattle, the manager came to the back of the plane and asked me if he could sit and talk to me for ten minutes. The first thing he asked me was which trophy I was most eager to win. I said the Premiership. We had a good chat and he said he felt he had seen enough to show him that the other players respected me. He wanted me to be captain. I was absolutely buzzing. He told me he wanted me to be there for the lads always. That was the number one priority for the captain in his mind. 'Even if you think they are wrong, you stick with them,' he said. ' Even if you have to tell me something I might not like, always stick with the players.' He wanted me to organize club events like paint-balling and go-karting and he wanted everyone to go. If someone missed it, then he wanted to know the reason why.

I know it's a cliche, but even though I'm the skipper, we've got a lot of leaders in the teams. The manager encourages that. before the pre season game, he introduced the idea of having a huddle in the dressing room a few minutes before every game. He wanted one player to give a team talk in the huddle and over the course of the season, he wanted every player to take a turn at doing it. When the player who was in charge finished his team walk, he had to yell, "Who are we?" The lads had to respond by shouting out 'Chelsea'. And we'd repeat that several times and then head out to the pitch.

I did about 8 of them over the course of the season. Lamps did about the same. Didier Drogba did a few. We had a couple of dodgy ones. when William Gallas did it, he was starring down at the floor, not looking at anybody and his English, which is usually good, went to pieces. When he got to the end of his speech he went, 'Where are we?' We all cracked up. 'We're at Stanford Bridge!' we all yelled out, and that broke the ice.

A couple of people prefer not to do them but, on the other hand, the player who did the best was Scottie, before the Newcastle game in the Carling Cup. His was so inspirationnal the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. He was so good some of the staff wanted to go out and play. H was staring at everyone, looking them right in the eye, talking about how Newcastle might have great fans but we were going to shut up and how this was going to be our first shot at silverware and weren't going to blow it. it was unbelievable.

We learned a lot from Jose in those first few weeks. He didn't drill the defence in the same way that, say, George Graham used to do at Arsenal when he tied the back four together with a piece of rope to drum it into them that they had to move up as a unit. Ther was nothing like that. But most of our pre-season work was based around defensive organization and defending as a team and that stayed with us for the whole season. He wanted us to defend solidly and he wanted that process to start with the forwards. It was made absolutely clear to the midfielders that they always had o track their runners. No excuses. No exceptions. He never wanted to see us caught one on one with an attacker at the back. Once he drummed that into us, that was it. It stuck.

It's not just what he says. It's the timing of the meeting and it's the location. It's only since has arrived at the club that I've begun to realize the importance of things like that. For instance, the room where we hold the team meeting is detached from the main training ground complex. It's not in the same building where we have our lunch in the canteen and get changing rooms. It's in a smaller building on the way to the training pitches. It sounds silly but once we get in that room, we move into game mode. The game might still be more than 24 hours away but suddenly there's a new intensity about everything that doesn't drop until the final whistle blows the following afternoon. You believe you are playing your opponents in that final training session Everything you are doing is with them in mind. Your whole week has been building up to this point. You've read the dossier the manager has prepared, you've listened to what he has had to say at the team meeting and by friday afternoon you feel ready. Actually, you feel more than ready. You're chomping at the bit, desperate to get out there and prove you're the best again.

When we got back from the pre-season of America he said he had won the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and what had we won: nothing. He said he was bringing a winning mentality with him and he was going to turn us into winners to. When it came to the 'put your medals on the table' test, we would come up empty. There were other players in the team now like Paolo and Makelele who had won the Champions League, too, and we wanted to have what they had.

If you can harness that hunger as a manager, if you can keep a player hungry, then that's the greatest gift of all. And Mourinho has that gift. He kept us hungry from the first friendly in Seattle right through to the last game of thes season at Newcastle. That's why we only lost one league game.

Sometimes, over the course of the season, he has seemed more like a friend than a manager. He will sit with us in the canteen in the morning, chatting over a piece of toat. About what was on the telly the night before, about the match that was on, or the news of the day, or which restaurant we had been out to. It's like having a mate around the place some of the time. He treats people with consideration. And he doesnt't just look after first-team players or people who he thinks might be useful to him. He does things than no other manager I've ever worked with would have thought of doing. He cares about people at all levels of the club and that's why he's built the best team spirit we have ever had. Towards the end of the season, he found out that one of the guys who had worked at the training ground doing odd jobs for about 20 years and who is Chelsea through and though had a birthday coming up. His name is Frank Steer. Jose treated Frank to a weekend with the team that he will remember for the rest of his life. When we played at Southampton, Frank sat up at the front of the team bus with the manager, he ate with us in the evening, he came into the team meeting and he sat with the rest of the staff during the match. He absolutely loved it, he's still talking about it noe. We can't shup him up. I thought the whole thing reflected incredibly well on the manager. it's the king of thing that has started to set us apart from other clubs I think. It's the kind of thing that has built our team spirit up very quickly to a point where it's the best I've ever known.

Everytime the heat was on, it was the manager who was under fire. When they were negative, headlines, he was the one getting it in the neck. Not us. He was the one who was shouldering everything and letting us get on with the football. And it worked like a dream for the players.

Nothing is left to chance with him, everything is planned. I like the fact that he's passionate about his football anyway. I like the fact he's not afraid to stand up for himself. And when he leaps off the bench and pumps his fist when we score a goal in a big game, that's great to see too. It's like he's one of us. It's better than a guy standing there showing no emotion. You want somebody to inspire you. All he's doing is showing how much he wants to win and that makes us even more desperate to give the victory to him.

Even though we consider him a mate, there is still something there that marks out the territory between boss and player. There is a line you know not to cross with Jose.

Normally, he's calm and methodical. When we first get back to the chessing room after the half-time whistle has gone, he lets us thrash out what's happened in the opening 45 minutes amongst ourselves for a while. He likes  to sit there going through his notes before he says anything. He doesn't panic or rush to judgement. He makes those 15 minutes at half-time seem quite leisurely and considered.

When Gullit was in charge, each room housed a different clique: French boys in one, Italians in another, British in another. It was all strictly divided up. Same under Vially and Ranieri really. Then, when Mourinho arrived, he got all the walls knocked down so we just had one big changing room. That felt a lot better. It was great. They spent a lot of money well spent. We were there for half the season. Those improvements helped us win the title.

Some matches tell you everything you need to know about yourself and your team-mates. Some matches tell you whether you've got it or you haven't. Some matches tell you whether you're going to be able to stand the heat or whether you're going to start fading away. Our game at Blackburn was that kind of game. It was the game that told us we were going to win the title. At the end, we realized something significant had just happenned. We all felt we had just hurdled a big barrier. And so when went to salute our fans, the manager told us throw our shirts to the supporters who had mede the long journey up there to give them a memento of the day. Blackburn did what they had to do. They did what they thought would give them the best chance of getting a result. They tried to formulate tactics that they thought would play to their streengths and our weaknesses. Nothing wrong with that. It was just that we weren't quite as weak as they had hoped. The manager said to the press: "It was a big fight without respect for the rules of the game. They felt they could not beat us by playing football and they had to try to intimidate us with aggression and direct football. They thought we were not ready for a game like tonight but we were ready."

The Carling Cup came smack bang in the middle of the two legs of our epic champions league against Barcelona. I asked the manager how we were going to approach it in the light of that. He looked at me like I was mad. 'It's going to be our first trophy. Strength side out.' It was great to hear that. We all loved that.

The manager's mantra is that history is there to be changed, that bad memories are there to be wiped out. Things were relaxed before the game. The manager called us into the team meeting. He touched a button on his laptop and it palyed for 10 or 12 minutes on the screen. It was mostly a DVD of football funnies. There was some footage of an African team who had a great keeper with one leg.  He was amazing. There was a caption on the screen accompanying the footage of him saying 'be careful of Dudek's long balls'. There were about 10 different funny clips. He realized it was our first final together and that maybe we needed calming down a little bit. it relaxed us all. It took the tension out of us. After that, I knew it was going to be our cup. He is very good at gauging a mood and tailoring his preparation to that mood.

Barcelona
He was convinced we were good enough to beat them, so it didn't matter to him what stage of the competition we met them.

That's one of the manager's great atrengths. He is decisive man but he is prepared to listen and discuss and he is happy to take the opinions of others into account. So when we got back form Barcelona, we had a team meeting at the training ground and talked over all the issues arising from the game at the Nou camp. We had a discussion about Didier's sending off and the manager invited anyone who wanted to get up and speak. Eidur stood up and told the manager the thought he should have brought Didier off earlier because there was a good chance Didier was going into trouble. Even Didier had some sympathy with the argument. Eidur apologized to him and said he hoped he didn't take any offence from it and Didier was adamantit wasn't a problem. In fact, he agreed with him. And the manager just listened to him and took it all in. And I think that says a lot about the kind of spirit Mourinho has built at Chelsea. He encourages us to speak our minds and not to harbour resentments. He wants everything out in the open.

Mourinho had predicted even before the season had begun that this would be the match when we sealed the title. Sometimes there is something spooky about the way he predicts what is going to happen. He did it when he said he wanted Barcelona in the second round of the champions league. Sure enough we get Barcelona. He said we would win the title at Bolton. Roght again.

The title
No one quite seemed to know where he was. There was a rumor that he was on the bus. We got on te bus and he wasn't there. He had said he wanted this to be our day and for all the attention to be focussed on us. I guessed he was already back at the Preston Marriott looking through his notes on the Liverpool game already starting to plot the fine details of what we hoped was going to be another night for the club. That's the kind of bloke he is.

The special one
2 june 2004: the special one arrives, Jose Mourinho is appointed manager on a three year contract. He says: 'We (Chelsea) have top players and, sorry if I'm arrogant, but we now have a top manager.'

Holliday
When I was still soaking up the sun in Arizona, I got a text from the manager saying, 'We have to comeback better and stronger next season.'

The special one... By John Terry.

You can win at life...

- Visualizing and defining your dreams and desires
- Recognizing your potential
- Setting your goals
- Planning how to achieve your goals
- Training your body and mind
- Staying ahead
- Leading or being a member of a team

Where do we want to be in 10 years' time? What share of the market do we want to have ? it wouldn't be right for me to give motivational speeches to other companies if I couldn't make a success of my own business ventures.

When I talk of winning I use the word in its broadest sense. Everyone can improve on what they do. Winning for most people means a series of personal victories. It's not about ability. It's about preparing correctly and doing things methodically.

Winning isn't necessarily about beating opponents. It can also mean getting to the finish line of a challenge you have set yourself.

Proud, direct, smart. If you see Johnson in a photo, he wears the same stoic, determined expression that he did as a kid. His comments tend to be blunt, and, when agitated, traces of his arkansas roots resonate in the timbre of his voices. relaxed, he peppers his conversations with humorous anecdotes and is quick to burst into laughter at the telling of his own favorite stories.

Lesson # 1: Never forget Mama

My mother had the greatest influence on my life. She gave me hope that one day, somehow, I would triumph. She gave me patience, which is absolutely necessary in business.

Lesson# 2: Start Small, Aim High

I always advice young people to dream small dreams, because small dreams can be achieved, and once you achieve a small dream and a small success, it gives you confidence to go on to the next big step. They must understand that a grocery store can indeed develop into a chain of supermarkets. Entrepremeurship is personal. it is what you can do almost by yourself. When I start out, I did not see the company the way it is today. And I think if I did, I probably would have been so overwhelmed, with my meager ressources, that I wouldn't have started it.

He needed cash for his unformed entreprise. So the institution never lend money to blacks. He was bitter, but he took a page from Dale Carnegie: Don't get mat, get smart.
Then, he talked to his benefactor. Harry Pace. The black executive not only encourage him, but also let Johnson use Supreme Life's mailing list of 20 000 policyholders to solicit $2 subscriptions.

I remerber the letter very well. it said, "A good friend of yours told me that you would be interested in a new magazine that I'm binging out at such and such a time. This friend told me that you were a person who would like to keep up with current events, who liked to be well informed, and that because of this, you would be interested in this magazine." about 3000 people answered the letter and many of them, after having written their check, would ask, "Oh, by thee way, what friend told you about me?" Actually, no friend told me.

The most important thing a manager can learn is the ability to analyse a situation and quickly think his way out of it.

Lesson# 3: if you can't go through the front door, use a side entrance

First I think the timing was right. Secondly I thinkthe market was ready. Thirdly, I think I was able to learn from mistakes. Iwent in with a determination that nothing and nobody would get in the way. I think that if you believe in something, to have the commitment is really more important than having the money.

"As long as you are trying then you are nots a failure."

I cultivated secretaries. I would find out their birthday and send flowers to them. They appreciated my persistence and patience. This approach helped me when I tried to get a meeting with FairFax, his secretary said that she couldn't make an appointment for anyone but she grew to like me and gave me a valuable tip. She said : "Mr Core doesn't like to fly and goes to New York every sunday. If I were you I would be on that train." i took her advice and for three consecutives sundays I traveled and managed to get an audition with him in these occasions. Shortly thereafter he arranged for me to talk to executives at his agency.

Lesson# 4: walk around anone or anything that gets in your way

He developed a stronger presence on Madison Avenue, setting up a New York based advertising office.

To sell the product he used the same tactic he developed 30 years earlier, in order to convince the store that Fashion Fair was an instant hit, he gave his emplyees money to buy $200 worth of the company's product a day. Based on those sales, Marshall Field's increased its order.

Lesson# 5: You can grow it alone

I believe that if I had partners, i would have never been as successful. It's a difficult for a group of people to agree on one objective.

Lesson# 6 : Stay the course

I have a policy that as long as an employee is able to do the job, he or she can stay with the company. That includes me.

"The observations on the first-half are the most important thing. You only have about seven or eight minutes to rectify or resolve the situation if the match isn't going to plan.

"You should never dodge any issues I don't know what team talks are like in other dressing-rooms but I try to get to the nub of the problem and solve it  as quickly as I can." 

And after that ? "After that, you have to motivate your players to start the second half. "As manager you have to produce the right words and the right volume to makes players very aware of their responsabilities and how they can improve."

Sir Alex, coach of the day...