Senna: Difficult? Thankfully! Mourinho would agree

Chelsea’s coach José Mourinho is famous for his ‘original’ quotes. Two days ago, before the 3×1 defeat to the now enormously wealthy  Paris St Germain, I heard the Portuguese give one of his best answers ever. Asked about how difficult it was to work with Swedish star, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mourinho did not hesitate: “Difficult? We had a fenomenal relationship. For me , the difficult personalities are the players who do not want to win, do not want to work, do not want to be the best. He wants to win, he wants to work, he wants to be the best. He has a big ego, a big self esteem. He knows he really is a top player. So for me, to be his coach, was no problem at all”.

Ayrton working on engine telemetry. I am looking on

For a moment, I thought he was talking about Ayrton Senna!! I thought he was reading my mind and answering people who had asked me exactly the same over 20 years ago!! This kind of difficult people are an honour and a privilege to work with . Not to mention a pleasure and an inspiration. This kind of difficult people make you want to be better, to wonder all the time how you can improve yourself. As Mourinho said: “We had a phenomenal relationship”.