“I can never let it go” – Ex-Chelsea prospect on being ‘hurt’ by Jose Mourinho during encounter at Stamford Bridge

Former Chelsea midfielder George Saville has shared an unforgettable encounter with legendary manager Jose Mourinho from his time at Stamford Bridge, which remains indelible. The midfielder spoke to his club Millwall F.C.'s podcast about his encounter with Mourinho in his time at Chelsea almost a decade ago.

Saville spent ten years at Chelsea, playing with a talented group at the club's academy that included Ryan Bertrand, Nathaniel Chalobah and Fabio Borini. During his time with the club, it was very unlikely for youth team prospects to appear regularly for the club, and Saville did not make a single senior appearance.

The Northern Irishman was quite familiar with the club's senior players, having been named among the substitutes several times. One day during Jose Mourinho's second spell at the club, the pair had a personal encounter before a first-team meeting.

“I remember that summer I came in and they [some senior players] were in the corridor and Mourinho was in charge

“The English lads are all going into the meeting and I’m obviously a really young lad. They’ve seen me and we’re all having a nice chat, as you do. And Mourinho walked past with a dead-straight face just looked at me, didn’t say hello, just looked to me and said: ‘what are you still doing here?’

“And I was like ‘woah’. You know you could feel heat. And the English lads were like ‘leave him, he’s alright.’ I honestly felt that small. I was like – that’s hurt. It’s stuck with me since. I can never let it go.”

The midfielder held the grudge in until 2020, when he took the field against Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup as part of Middlesbrough F.C. Saville said he spoke to the manager about the incident, who was nice about it.

"And I shook his hand and I was like ‘do you remember me?’ And he actually said ‘yeah, I do’ and was actually friendly. I said: ‘Do you remember that [moment] in the corridor?’ And he didn’t care or didn’t know but I still had to get it in. But he was really nice about it.

“At the time he might have been joking or whatever but because of the way it came across…”

Saville left Chelsea permanently in 2014, shortly after the encounter with Jose Mourinho, to join Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship.

Jose Mourinho was not the biggest fan of the academy at Chelsea

In his time as Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho was not the biggest fan of the academy. The Portuguese manager preferred to sign the players he wanted and did not have the patience to work with the academy as much.

During his second spell with the club between 2013 and end of 2015, Mourinho took some academy players under his wing for the first time in London. The manager handed debuts to Cobham prospects Dominic Solanke, Izzy Brown and Lewis Baker.

The experienced manager may have appeared to be quite rude to George Saville, but it must be noted that this was his style. His confrontational style of man-management has brought him success and trophies across numerous clubs in Europe. Whether that style still works for the superstars of today is up for debate.