Jose Mourinho is backing Celtic for the English Premier League (Picture: Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho has indicated he has unfinished business with Celtic more than a decade after his Porto side pipped the Bhoys to the UEFA Cup in Seville.

That memorable final back in 2003 cast the Portuguese coach as a footballing heretic in the eyes of the Celtic support.

The green and white legions who descended on Andalusia in May 2003 have never forgiven the Chelsea boss for the time-wasting antics of his side.

Mourinho has of course become one of the leading managers in the game since breaking the hearts of Martin O’Neill and his star-studded outfit.


Indeed when he talks football listens, and Mourinho is now calling for Celtic’s inclusion in the English Premier League.



In short he feels they would bring ‘something special’ to the league and are suffering because of the lack of competition in their own backyard.

That will be music to leading lights inside Celtic Park who have been seriously considering such a move for some time.

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The Celtic support would welcome Jose Mourinho (Picture: Reuters)

It’s not as though the former Real Madrid and Internationale boss doesn’t know the game in Scotland. In fact in a sense his managerial career began there nearly 20 years ago.

As a translator for Bobby Robson at Porto he came to the SFA’s centre of excellence in the Ayrshire town of Largs – a famed coaching hub – to gain his badges.

We may think of Mourinho as a lover of the English game, but it is undeniable that Scotland is his spiritual home.

Perhaps this was another reason for his good personal and working relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson from the off.

Now, not content to talk up Celtic as a ‘big club’ with a ‘famous history’, he has held out the prospect of taking charge there one day.

Asked if he fancied the hot seat in the east end of Glasgow he said ‘you never know what can happen in football.’

Celtic competing south of the border may still be pretty unlikely but given his links to Scotland the idea of Mourinho plying his trade there is by no means far-fetched.

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