I thought Jose Mourinho was super arrogant – I was wrong, admits Alex, former star of Chelsea

The former Chelsea defender, Alex, said he had had a misconception of Jose Mourinho before meeting the Portuguese coach, saying he was not so arrogant provided that.

Brazil's central defender joined Chelsea from PSV in 2004, a month after hiring Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, but work permit issues have taken him to PSV most of his time.

Mourinho has become the most successful coach in the club's history, but the Portuguese's reputation has collapsed in recent years. Performance and disappointing results as well as breaks in relations with players suffered from his second spell in the Blues as well as that of Real Madrid and Manchester United.

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But Alex has good memories of his pbading with the winning manager of the Champions League, who has become a father figure for him in Chelsea.

"I was surprised by Mourinho," said Alex Goal. "I had this impression of him as a super arrogant person with a huge ego, because of what we saw in the media, but I ended up seeing something else.

"I worked with him for only three months in Chelsea and every day Mourinho was sitting by my side. and and we talked a lot. I loved him very much as a person and as a coach. Of course he has his own way of bringing out the best of the players, and often the players do not agree with him.

"Sometimes it can hurt, it's very severe with some players … I saw Andriy Shevchenko suffer a bit in Chelsea Mourinho put a lot of pressure on Shevchenko and some players do not work well with that, but for me he is fantastic as a person and as a coach.

"I arrived in 2007 and I can say that our group has very well accepted it, and it seems to me that the players today do not do it. jobs he always ended up fighting with someone, especially the big stars. We saw that in Manchester United too. It seems that today 's players do not accept his style, his way of working. But in this [Chelsea] team, what I saw were players who really liked him a lot. "

Mourinho is part of a long line of coaches hired and fired at Chelsea since Roman Abramovich bought the club. The trend should continue, the current boss, Maurizio Sarri, is under pressure in his first season at the head of the Blues and has enjoyed a few games to save his job.

And Alex believes that the Italian must hurry up and reverse the situation immediately if he has the chance to meet expectations.

"I was expecting a lot from Sarri because I was playing against his Napoli team and that was very difficult," Alex said. "It was a starless team, just Gonzalo Higuain in front but tactically it worked, they were flying in. As a fan, I created expectations but that does not happen … They suffered this defeat. -0 against Manchester City It's not normal for Chelsea, it depends a lot on the coach, I think.

"Because of what's happening in Chelsea, he needs to recover as quickly as possible. Other I think he's losing … it's hard there. Abramovich is not that patient and there is this result against City. Things really went wrong with the manager. I think it is very difficult. He must recover quickly and get good results. "

When asked if Chelsea's locker room could be labeled "toxic," Alex said it was common for players to do their part to get an underperforming coach out.

"In my time, yes, I can not talk about it now because I'm not here, but it was during my time," he said. "There was a lot people who hoped that things would not end well and a coach ended up leaving. I think that happens in a lot of clubs, I think it's normal in football. And Chelsa became very famous especially after what happened to Luiz Felipe Scolari, some saying that Didier Drogba had a meeting with Abramovich … I think it happens in all clubs, I do not see much difference. Sometimes, players really hope that managers can be sacked. "