A frank chat with the 'Special One'

Portuguese manager José Mourinho has sent Inter Milan charging toward another Serie A title during his first season with the club. AP Luis Bueno's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Luis. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

For three consecutive summers, José Mourinho brought Chelsea to the U.S. for preseason training and friendlies against other touring European clubs and assorted Major League Soccer teams. Two years after his last trip, the Portuguese manager will bring a new team back to the States.

Mourinho's Inter Milan will be part of a four-team tournament this summer that will see him face his old club in Chelsea, his bitter domestic archrivals in AC Milan as well as Mexican giant Club América.

During the recent international break, Mourinho took a quick jaunt to Southern California to make some preliminary preparations for the so-called World Football Challenge. I was fortunate enough to sit down with him at a ritzy Beverly Hills locale to discuss all things football with the self-proclaimed "Special One."

SI.com: This series of friendlies seems like a good bit of action for Americans, but it's a lot of travel for Inter Milan. Why are you participating?

Mourinho: It's a big opportunity for Inter Milan to go abroad, because over the past five years, Inter always did the preseason in Italy [in front of] the fan base they already had in the country. This is the first big opportunity to come to the States and work the fan base that Inter probably doesn't have at this moment, despite so many Italians and second-, third- and fourth-generation Italian-Americans in the States. It's the kind of country where I would love to see soccer have a bigger impact, which I know is not easy because of the American culture of American sports. Every game will be an important one, a massive opportunity to show our game and to make people enthusiastic about it. I understand that MLS is becoming better and better but it's still very far from [European standards]. If soccer wants to go in the right direction in this country, this is the kind of opportunity to motivate people.

SI.com: Your first match in this tournament will be in the Rose Bowl against Chelsea on July 18. It'll be the first time you'll be facing your old club.

Mourinho: I think it will be good because we have great memories. I made them win lots of things from 2004 until '07. They made me win, too, because we won together. The relationship is fantastic. I think we miss each other. Football life is like this. I have a new life but friendly relations are forever. A good thing about this game is you never lose these kinds of feelings, these kinds of emotions. So for me and for them, I think if you ask them the same question, it will be the same. For 90 minutes, we are not friends anymore because this is the essence of the game, but we are real friends. I belong to their history and they belong to mine, so it will be a huge, huge, huge, huge pleasure to play against them.

SI.com: Since you left in September 2007, Chelsea in on its third manager. Why do you think that is?

Mourinho: When a club has a period of success, the next period is difficult because the expectations are very, very high. People adapt to work with somebody for a long period -- in my case, 3½ years. After that comes always a difficult period, which, after they get over it, the stability returns. A new coach returns with a new philosophy. [Chelsea] has quality, the club has potential, the club now has tradition. They know what it means to be successful. The stability will be back. It happened when I was at Porto. We won the Champions League, and the next day I left for Chelsea. They lost a bit of stability, had three coaches in the same season and won nothing. But after that, they returned to stability and once again became Portuguese champions. I think that will happen to Chelsea. They will return to stability because the players are very, very good. We made a team for the long-term. They're young -- the average age is 27, 28 -- so they have a team for the future.

SI.com: Are you disappointed that you didn't have a chance to see those players develop?

Mourinho: Yeah, a little bit. When you go to a club, you expect to stay for a longer time. But at the same time, it was good for me because, over 3½ years, we won championships. Sometimes it's better to change. This Italian experience is amazing because it's completely different. If you stay in the same country and you know everything about the culture, the football culture, it's easy to win because it's something you can control. You can reduce the improbability of the situation. When you change from country to country, it's more difficult because you need to arrive immediately and get results -- that's the ambition of big clubs. This Italian experience came to me at the right moment. I don't regret it despite being completely in love with Chelsea.

SI.com: In your first season with Inter, you're close to the Serie A title. How have you been able to adjust so quickly?

Mourinho: It's an ambition I always had and I never denied. I would love to win the three most important championships in the world, which are the English, the Italian and the Spanish. If I can get the Italian now, it would be an important step for me. It's a really, really difficult championship. I am the only foreign manager of the 20 in Serie A. It's not easy. That is a very specific culture of the game, which I don't want for myself. I don't want to lose my identity, so to fight against this tendency is even more difficult. The team I got was not a team to begin an era with because it's a team in the end of a period, a team with a very high average age. You have, for example, 12 players older than 32, so it's not a team to build for the future. I think I'm closing a period; if I do that with a victory in the Italian league, it would be fantastic, and the next season start a new period with younger people, with different kinds of ambitions, with a different kind of mentality.