The Sporting coach is a manager in demand (Pictures: Getty Images)
Jose Mourinho is a big fan of Ruben Amorim and believes he is ready to make the jump to the Premier League, while he has also reacted to Andre Villas-Boas being elected the new president of Porto.
Sporting coach Amorim is a manager in demand, with the 39-year-old flying to London last week to hold talks with West Ham while Chelsea have also been linked with a swoop – though the club distanced themselves from reports they arranged his flight to the capital.
Amorim is currently fighting to secure the Portuguese league title, with the side five points ahead of second-placed Benfica with only three matches left to play and a vastly superior goal difference.
While Mourinho feels Amorim is already at a great club where he can showcase his coaching qualities, he is in no doubt that his countryman is capable of taking over the reins in a bigger league.
Asked if Amorim would be a good fit for the Premier League, Mourinho told reporters on Wednesday: ‘A question I shouldn’t answer. What can I say?
‘I like him as a person and as a coach. He has all the qualities to coach in any league and at any club. But he’s in a good league and at a great club already.
‘It’s his decision, and that of the club who want to convince him with more or less [compelling] arguments.
‘What’s clear from my side is that I like the person and the coach.’
Sporting’s fierce rivals Porto, meanwhile, confirmed on Sunday that former Chelsea and Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas, Mourinho’s old assistant, had been elected as president in a landslide victory.
Villas-Boas’ election win at Porto was huge news in Portugal (Picture: Getty)
In the process, Villas-Boas ended the 42-year reign of Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa – who Mourinho worked under when he won the Champions League with Porto – and the self-proclaimed Special One is intrigued to see how AVB gets on in the new role.
‘I am in the history of Porto as a coach, not as a director. I stayed away from the electoral process and will remain out of the club’s current affairs,’ said Mourinho.
‘Of course it is an important club in my history. Who am I to say anything more [about Pinto da Costa] than what history already says?
‘To the new president, Villas-Boas, with whom I worked for nearly five or six years of my career, obviously I cannot say anything negative.’
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On their time together at Porto and Chelsea, Mourinho joked: ‘He’s the one who worked with me!
‘We’re talking about 15 years in which we haven’t worked together. People change so much, for better or for worse.
‘He had experience in football and then obviously prepared himself for this challenge in his life – and he has certainly prepared himself well.
‘If he ran for it, it is because he feels capable of it. The most important thing is what he thinks of himself not what others may think of him.’
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