STEVE SIDWELL has lifted the lid on how his first hilarious meeting with Jose Mourinho went down.
Back in 2007, Sidwell was being touted by Chelsea ahead of a free transfer from Reading.
AFPSteve Sidwell revealed how his hilarious first meeting with Jose Mourinho went down[/caption]
GettyMourinho and wife Matilde Faria, right, were shocked to see Sidwell[/caption]
The ex-midfielder recalled how he awaited a phone call from the Blues boss, which then saw him invited to his house for the evening.
However, after arriving at the Portuguese tactician’s house, no one gave him the heads up, leaving him and his wife Matilde Faria shocked when he saw Sidwell sitting in his living room.
Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast, Sidwell revealed: “I left training and my agent called me and said Peter Kenyon (Chelsea’s CEO at the time) had called [and said] ‘they want to sign you’.
“All my family and friends are Chelsea fans. I was born in Wandsworth, grew up in Tooting, so I was like ‘can Jose call me?’.
“I got home, it was a hot day, I was sweating and pacing up and down in my living room with the mobile waiting for him to call.
“The phone goes and I was like ‘oh, hello Jose’. We had a two-minute chat and he said ‘what you doing tonight?’ I said ‘nothing’ and he said ‘right, you’re going to come to my house’.
Sidwell continued: “He sent a car to come and get me and my missus. We pulled up outside his house, had to walk down the mews, walked down this road, into his house.
“The door was already open so we’ve gone in his house, straight into the living room and sat down. Me, my wife and my agent.
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Sidwell signed for Chelsea in 2007News Group Newspapers Ltd
Mourinho left soon after but continued his winning habitRex
“His wife’s cooking in the kitchen, the dog’s running around. Ten minutes go past and we’re thinking ‘no one knows we’re here’.
“No one had obviously given him the heads up. We’re thinking ‘what do we do?’ I don’t want to go and tap his wife on the shoulder. She doesn’t know who I am.
“All of a sudden, you see these two legs coming down the stairs, [wearing a] pair of jeans, pair of slippers.
“You then hear him go ‘what, what, he’s here already?’ He comes in and apologises. This is when he was in his prime. The missus is like (open mouth at meeting), the Portuguese God.
“We had a chat and he said ‘this is Chelsea’ and he got out this big book which said ‘Chelsea, July 2007’. It was mapping out pre-season every day, the schedule, the whole lot.”
Sidwell, whose Chelsea career only ended up lasting one season and with 25 appearances to his name, said it was an opportunity too good to turn down.
The 40-year-old moved to Aston Villa in 2008, before signing for Chelsea’s local rivals Fulham in 2011.
He stayed with the Cottagers for another three seasons, before moving to Stoke and eventually retiring at Brighton in 2018, where still works as a Youth team coach.
Overall he made 200 Premier League appearances across five clubs.
However, Sidwell also attempted to dispel rumours that he left the Royals for a pay rise, revealing Reading actually offered him MORE money than Chelsea did.
He said: “People said I went for the money but Reading offered me more money in the end to stay than I got at Chelsea, and that’s true, I’ve got the contracts at home.
“But what if Chelsea had won the Premier League or Champions League and I have to go to my kids ‘I could have signed for Chelsea’. They would say ‘well, why didn’t you?’
“When I met Jose, it was deal done. It was like, ‘where do I sign?’.”
Mourinho‘s first stint at Chelsea would end in September 2007.
Since then he has continued to forge a career covered in trophies and honours.
However, after seeing Roma lose the Europa League final to Sevilla on penalties, the 60-year-old threw his runner-up medal into the crowd to make one young fans day.
He is also now facing a Uefa ban after confronting referee Anthony Taylor in the car park following the game, where he labelled the official a “f***king disgrace”.