Jose Mourinho denied me Premier League winners medal at Chelsea as punishment

Carlton Cole believes that Jose Mourinho stopped him claiming a Premier League winner’s medal at Chelsea due to his off-field antics.

Cole was part of the Chelsea team that won the Premier League in the 2005/06 season under Mourinho, but he missed out on the required appearances to claim a medal by one.

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The striker made nine Premier League appearances that year, with the requirement to claim a medal ten.

However, he believes that Mourinho chose not to award Cole with that tenth appearance due to him going out and enjoying life away from the pitch.

Speaking on The Sports Bar with Jason Cundy about the new Mourinho documentary on Netflix, Cole recounted his time working with him at Stamford Bridge.

He said: “He gave me a chance because I knew I was the one coming up and trying to get in, and he didn’t make me feel like I wasn’t good enough.

“He gave me a season with the first team, so there was four strikers, and I was happy to be involved in it.

“I played nine league games that season, I should have got ten.

“If I had the ten, I would have received a winner’s medal, but I didn’t

“We won the league with two or three games to spare, and he didn’t play me in any of them.

“He played Robert Huth, so he got his medal.

“When I talked to my agent, I said that he probably didn’t play me because of my antics off the field – I was going out too much, I wasn’t focusing.

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“I didn’t deserve it, which is fair enough, and that was my experience of him.”

Father figure

Despite not picking up a Premier League winner’s medal, Cole mainly just has good words to say about Mourinho.

Earlier in the conversation, he opened up about how Mourinho was honest with him and told him to go on loan before getting a chance in the first team.

This loan came during the 2004/05 campaign, and he joined Aston Villa.

“I went on loan the season before when we finished second, I went to Charlton Athletic.

“I came back and I wanted to impress in pre-season, but Roman Abramovich wanted to buy more players and go for the league and Champions League.

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“There was no time for me to develop and I got no leeway, and I had to go on loan again.

“I spoke to Jose, and he told me I needed to go out and play more because I had spent half of the season at Charlton on the sideline, and I had things going on off the field as well.

“I went on loan to Aston Villa, and I could have come back, but there was no break clause in the contract, so I had to do the whole season.

“I was a bit disappointed, and I was sulking when I was away because I didn’t want to leave home, and I do regret that with Aston Villa, I didn’t give my all there.”

Cole departed in that summer due to the competition from Didier Drogba, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Hernan Crespo.

He then went to West Ham, where he spent nine seasons.

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The Special One

After a stunning managerial career that has seen Mourinho manage the biggest clubs in the world, he is the latest football icon to get the Netflix treatment.

The documentary details Mourinho’s rise at Barcelona under Sir Bobby Robson as a translator to becoming assistant manager and leading Porto to the Champions League in 2003/04.

From there, he joined Chelsea and proclaimed he was ‘The Special One’ and he proved he was with two Premier League titles.

Inter Milan and another Champions League followed before Real Madrid and a return to Chelsea, where he claimed a third Premier League title.

Less successful times at Manchester United still brought silverware, and a first European trophy for Roma since the 1960s soon followed.

There was a spell at Tottenham Hotspur that didn’t work out and also tenures with Benfica and Fenerbahce, but he is now back at Real and is rebuilding the Glacticos.

Vinicius Junior has signed a new deal and Yan Diomande has joined as well, so it could be another special season in store for Real.