Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has insisted that the club needed him back to mould a young squad into a team capable of achieving sustained success for years to come.
Mourinho returned for a second spell at Stamford Bridge this summer, six years after an acrimonious departure amid rumours of a rift with owner Roman Abramovich.
The Portuguese coach believes that there is core group of players capable of helping him build a second side worth shouting about in West London, but not at the expense of competing for trophies in the short-term.
He told Sports Illustrated: "The project is quite new for me, and to be fair, I don't want to look like I'm not humble, but I think Chelsea needs me in this moment. Because it's more build than rebuild. It's to build a new team. I left in 2006-07, and still now there is quite a spine of my team. So my team lasts for almost 10 years.
"And now I have in my hands as a consequence of the good work Chelsea did in the last years a very good group of young players, very talented players, and I have these kids in my hands to build the future of Chelsea. As I was saying, it's in my nature, the owner's nature, the supporters' nature. We want to win. We don't want to say we are building to win in five years time. We don't want to think like that, but the reality of this team is it has a lot to improve, and the kids have fantastic potential. We have conditions to do our work for the next 10 years.
"I have to adapt to their qualities. My Chelsea was different from this one, more physical, stronger mentally. It was a team with a different stability. This team has more talent."
The Blues have made a successful start to the campaign under Mourinho, taking maximum points from their first two Premier League games.
Liam Power
