I’d watched Jose Mourinho’s Porto side win the UEFA Cup the previous summer, and been so impressed. As a manager, the man himself was even more impressive. From the moment he came in, you could sense this guy was going to take the club on to that next level.

Straight away, he got me. I mean, he cracked the whip with me a lot. That’s public, you know? And looking back, there were times when I was really mad with him, but he knew what he was doing. He knew how to wind me up and get a performance out of me. He knew that if he dropped me, when he brought me on for 20 minutes in the next game, he was going to get 20 minutes of the best I could give.

He didn’t just criticise. I remember him telling the press that Frank Lampard was the best player in the world. At the time, Frank didn’t realise how good he was, but as soon as Mourinho said that, Frank’s shoulders went back. It got 10 per cent more out of him that even I didn’t know was there. He knew what to say to get the best out of different people.

“It’s hard to admit to yourself at the time, but so much of my game relied on quick feet and sharpness, and I’d lost a bit of that”

People talk about him changing me as a player, and he did. But I was only looking for improvements, you know? My natural inclination is to be a creative player. To get the most joy out of my football. But we were living in an environment where that doesn’t win you three points on a Saturday. That doesn’t keep your manager in a job. So you need to change.

I mean, it’ll always come out in my game eventually. You revert to type, don’t you? So, no matter how many times he told me, sometimes I’d try something and have to put my hand up: “Sorry gaffer, I shouldn’t have done that.”

You are what you are.

But Mourinho made me into an all-around better player. I was the best possible version of myself I could have been for Chelsea at that time.

Everything changed when I ruptured my cruciate ligament in 2009. I was never quite the same player after that. It’s hard to admit to yourself at the time, because you’re always trying to get back up that mountain. But so much of my game relied on quick feet and sharpness, and I’d lost a bit of that.