Jose Mourinho will warn all of his Chelsea squad to do it his way next season or leave Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea secured back-to-back Barclays Premier League titles under Mourinho’s last regime, not to mention winning the FA Cup and also the League Cup twice.
However, since his acrimonious departure in September 2007, the Blues have also endured more than their fair share of negative headlines – from air rifles fired in the training ground dressing room to John Terry’s bust-up with former team-mate Wayne Bridge and subsequent race row with Anton Ferdinand.
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is very close to Mourinho, often lamented the rise of player power within the modern game and the Portuguese sees no issue with maintaining the image of the club during his second tenure after agreeing on a four-year deal to return following his departure from Real Madrid.
“There is something I say whenever I go to a new club and I am going to say it again when I meet the players on July 8 – and some of the boys will have heard it before from me,” Mourinho said.
“It is a sentence I always say on the first day: ‘If you are a top professional, if you are not a selfish person, if you put the club in front of yourself and if you are here to work 100 per cent for me, for your fellow players and for the club, then we will have a wonderful relationship.
“If you are selfish, if you think about yourself and you don’t care about the club, don’t care about the image, if you don’t care about the fans then we are in big trouble, so it depends on you if the relationship is fantastic or if it is not fantastic.’
Despite history proving second comings do not always turn out for the best, the man who once famously described himself as a ‘Special One’ sees no reason why he cannot break the mould.
“These are like urban myths, football dogmas,” said Mourinho, who earlier this week moved to bring in 22-year-old Germany forward Andre Schurrle from Bayer Leverkusen as the club looks towards the future.
“I come here now and it’s completely different than if I arrived in a club for the first time. It should be a plus, something that helps us to do it well.