Aitor Karanka has admitted he was offered the opportunity to join Jose Mourinho at Chelsea when he left Real Madrid last summer.
The former Los Blancos assistant boss, currently working in England after his recent appointment as Middlesbrough manager, told La Sexta’s ‘Jugones’ programme that the Portuguese was keen to take him to Stamford Bridge as part of his backroom staff.
“I arrived at training one day and he kept looking over at me. Suddenly he asked why I wasn’t responding to his text messages.
“I looked at my phone and there was a message from him asking “if we go to this place would you like to come with me?”
“At first, I was all for it, but later I thought about it and decided against it as it was another League, another country.”
Karanka went on to speak of Mourinho’s tactical expertise and what it was like to work alongside the Portuguese.
“With Mourinho every minute is a learning experience. He is always three or four steps ahead, like during the [Champions League] match at Old Trafford when Nani was sent off and he immediately brought on Modric.
“He is always thinking ahead and is a very demanding Coach, but in the end results just didn’t come our way. When the team isn’t winning and the Coach has a character like his, then it’s understandable there is unrest.
“When he first called and asked me to join his coaching staff he hardly knew me, but said I would be part of the family. Everything that happened during the next three years, I anticipated in that first phone call.
“I knew I would be joining a coaching team that are almost like four brothers. Mourinho doesn’t understand falseness and sometimes he would ask me why I said a certain thing to the Press.
“I just replied that I had to do the same as he did because I was his assistant,” he concluded.
