Ramires reveals Mourinho's love!

It will be a couple of weeks before Chelsea fans start to get a firm idea about how Jose Mourinho will look to line up next season, but one player who is optimistic about his chances under the new manager is Brazilian international Ramires. Mourinho’s arrival prompted much speculation over the future of many of Chelsea’s squad, but it would appear that Mourinho has admired Ramires for some time from afar. Ramires revealed that he has already spoken to Mourinho ahead of returning to the club to start pre-season training, and the Portuguese man admitted trying to sign him twice already!

Speaking about his future, Ramires revealed: “I am eager to start working with Mourinho, my phone rang recently and it was Mourinho. It surprised me. We talked a lot and he said nice things. He said that he requested Inter Milan and Real Madrid sign me when he was coaching those teams, he said that he is happy that I am in Chelsea’s squad. That made me very happy, and I told him that he can count on me, that I’ll do what I can to help him be a winner at his new spell at the club. I was already eager to work with him and I am now even more motivated after finding out that he wants to work with me. I am feeling we will have a great season.”

It’s one of the first insights we’ve had to how Mourinho views his new squad, but it’s no surprise that the man dubbed The Blue Kenyan because of his supreme fitness would be the kind of player Jose would be interested in. One of the strongest features of Mourinho’s teams are that they are extremely difficult to score against. His style of defence relies on players pressing consistently and intently. Ramires’ incredible athleticism allows just the kind of work rate that Jose loves in his midfielders.

It will be interesting to see whether Mourinho sees Ramires as a central midfielder or whether he will deploy him on the right wing, as he has excelled there previously (Champions League 11/12). His versatility is of huge benefit to the squad, and with Mikel seemingly off to Galatasaray, it’s of little surprise that Ramires will have a big role to play. If Jose can get the best out of Ramires, we could see a far more influential player than we’ve gotten used to.
So tell us, where would you play Ramires next season?