Former Chelsea captain John Terry reportedly said recently that Mourinho is an absolute genius of a manager and that Andre Villas-Boas lost the support of the dressing room during his time in charge at Chelsea. Mourinho first coached Chelsea in 2004 and then again in 2013, during which time he led the team to three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and one Community Shield. Terry said, "The way he analyzes opponents tactically is at a level I've never seen before and Mourinho is an absolute genius. He knows the names of all the referees, the opponents' targeted tactics against our team, the coaches and the referee's kids ...... like the back of his hand." Mourinho shocked the English football world when he declared himself "the special one" at his first conference after taking over. Terry recalled, "During Mourinho's first pre-season in charge, we spent a couple of days in England and then went to Los Angeles. The first few training sessions were a great opportunity to impress him as we were all dreading his first press conference after taking over.
We were all worried, calling each other, we didn't know what was going to happen. To see him so confident, it scared us a little bit." Terry added: "I like the way Mourinho creates the best mentality for the Chelsea game. I remember the first day I started and I thought I was always the first of the team to the training ground. But I was still in the canteen and he was already on the pitch placing training cones and going over what we needed to do. He told us 'We're going to win the title this season. You are the best players in the world.' No one has ever said that to us before, but it makes us feel very special." However, Portuguese teenager Andre Villas-Boas, who has been touted as Mourinho's successor, has failed miserably at Chelsea. Terry revealed, "On our 13-hour flight to Hong Kong, China, Boas tried to get us older players to sit in economy class and that cost him the support of the dressing room just after he arrived at Chelsea. There were some young players he put in first class at the time and he wanted to make the team understand in that way that no player was above him."
