Question posed by journalist: "Do you think you can sell a product like football with the attitude of sending your vice coach to speak after a game?" (Mourinho had sent his assistant, Baresi, to a few press conferences)
Mourinho's response:
"If you want a clear example of this matter, let's talk about the Premiership, the number one product in this sense. Alex Ferguson is considered the world over as one of the best coaches in the history of football, and I think he is too. How many times does Sir Alex Ferguson not talk to the press? And how many times do we hear talk of lack of respect and all these negative adjectives that we heard the other day? In my brief career, I have sent a collaborator to talk to the press twenty-one times. Here, for the first time in these twenty-one times, there has been talk of lack of respect."
"I'll ask you a question. A coach who studied Italian for four or five hours a day for three months came to a new country for the first time and spoke with the country, the people, the fans and the journalists in their language, maybe not that well because sometimes I make mistakes. Do you think this is a lack of respect? And now Ranieri talks. Ranieri who during his five years in England had problems saying good day, good afternoon and good morning. And now Ranieri, who respected the English fans and journalists, comes to me and says these things."
"Giuseppe Baresi can't represent Inter? He can't represent his coach José Mourinho? The only person who can say this to me is president Moratti. If he tells me Baresi doesn't have the quality, the status, the image or the faith to represent the club, then I promise that I will be here in every meeting with the press. But it's the president who has to tell me this, not you or another journalist on TV, or another coach. Before coming here I prepared a document for the club. I wrote a profile of the collaborators I wanted. One of the things I wrote in that document, that both myself and the club have, were the reasons why I want with me a person with a certain profile who knows the history of the club. That person is Giuseppe Baresi, but it could have been Riccardo Ferri or Giuseppe Bergomi, or another man who is important for the history of the club, so I can have someone who represents me with dignity, class and status before the fans, other clubs and the press. The problem here is a different one: you had no respect for a person like Giuseppe Baresi. If you don't understand, I can do a drawing to explain it better to you."
