Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he does not care how Blues fans respond to him during Sunday’s crucial Premier League match at Old Trafford.
Mourinho’s relationship with Chelsea supporters has been strained since he left for the second time in 2015 and subsequently took over as Manchester United boss in 2016.
The increasingly bitter fallout with current Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has further tested the bond he once enjoyed with the Blues faithful.
Mourinho, who refused to discuss the public war of words with Conte, said: “The fans are fans. With many of them in the street, I feel that empathy and that relation that normally should be a connection and feeling forever.
“When I play at Stamford Bridge, some reactions from the fans are just reactions. I don’t care much.”
Chelsea will go level on points with second-placed United if they win, making Sunday’s encounter vital to both sides in the battle for a Champions League place.
Mourinho added: “This game will mean less and less and less with the passing of the years. I left a couple of years ago, it will be three years, then four, but step by step, the feeling I was the Chelsea manager, it disappears.
“I have a good relationship with the board. I don’t forget how nice they were to me with the departure of my father.
“They showed me in that moment they feel me as a friend, who did the best for the club and always respects the club.
“In relation to the board they know that relation with me is always good.”
This post was last modified on 23/02/2018