It was possibly Chelsea’s most important league game of the year, so if Billy doesn’t give the team talk now, when can he?
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side won a hugely important game last night away at the Etihad to gain some ground on the side that looked to be champions elect, Manchester City. Every Chelsea player put in a fantastic shift, and it was clear that The Special One had gotten them in the right head space for the game with his pre-match team talk.
However, it seems that wasn’t actually the case, as he didn’t speak to the players before the game. That important duty was left to, of course, them team masseur Billy McCulloch, who got the players psyched up for the big match. Mourinho revealed that detail at his press conference afterwards, which was something to behold judging by the quotes coming out of it.
Mourinho: 'I didn't speak to the players before the game today, it was Billy the masseur who gave the team talk. I spoke at midday.' #CFC
— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) 3 fevereiro 2014
José added that he didn’t actually understand anything that Billy said, as he just shouted at them in Scottish.
Mourinho claims Billy McCulloch, the masseur, gave team-talk: 'Shouting in Scottish – 'Grrr! Grrr! Grrr! – I didn't understand any of it'
— Sam Wallace (@SamWallaceIndy) 3 fevereiro 2014
As it turns out, Billy himself isn’t Scottish, although he does work with the Scottish national team. He is in fact from Swindon, and he loves a good joke. Well, we say good joke…
The rest of the press conference was just as interesting, with Mourinho remaining very coy about Chelsea’s league title hopes. He claimed that he was planning for next year, and when asked if the title was now a three-horse race, he stated that it was a race with two horses and one little horse (Chelsea) that still “needs to drink its milk and learn how to jump”. He really is The Special One.
