“Nathan Ake, Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen, Lewis Baker, Brown: we have a group of kids, I’m not afraid to play them. But at the same time we want to protect the player.” So would winning the title with four or five homegrown lads be a better achievement than 10 years ago, or now with players signed by the club? Mourinho points out that he is fighting on four or five fronts at the top of the Premier League nowadays, but says: “It should be a moral commitment between the clubs and the country. I feel committed. Nobody is telling me we have a rule where we have to play five English players. But I feel, the difference in quality in the players we have now and the ones we had in 2004 is an amazing difference.