Mourinho Accepts Lampard Defeat

The new Inter Milan boss, who was confirmed as Roberto Mancini's successor earlier this summer, did not hesitate to point out differences between football in Italy and England, where he coached Chelsea.

"In England, there were always crowded stadiums but during trainings they were completely empty, in Italy there is a totally different culture, even in July, with this temperature and with such good beaches in this country, thousands of people come see our trainings," Mourinho told TVI.

The Special One stated that he is currently enjoying his new challenge and added that he hopes he can transform Italian football.

"It has been good so far, the players are very receptive to our work, we like what we do and we had not done it for months.

"I am a person with my own ideas, one of my goals is to try to change something in the Italian football and prevent Italian football from changing something in me," Mourinho noted.

Mourinho also commented on the situation of compatriot Figo, who was very close to leaving the club last season, saying that he believes that the former Portugal international will be very important for the club if he is not hampered by injuries.

"Figo a primary player to me, just like to his team-mates. He is an example of professionalism, it's not even worth to talk about his quality, I bet that if he does not get injured, he will make a great season, I will try to see if I can help him so that his career can go even further," he said.

Lamps Out

Mourinho has so far been very unlucky in the transfer market, having only signed Mancini from AS Roma and seen his approaches for Ricardo Quaresma and Frank Lampard being rejected by their respective clubs.

"I think bringing Lampard is now more complicated, I guess it's more likely that he sees out the remaining year of his contract than he joins now on a transfer.

"The Quaresma matter is hard but easy to understand, he is a player I would like to work with, it would be interesting for me to have a player like him, just like it would be interesting for him to have a coach like me.

"I am a coach of Inter Milan and he is a player of FCPorto, I am not a president, I do not know if there will be an offer for him or if it will be an offer that will be agreed, I do not know and I have to respect Quaresma and Porto," he concluded.

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