Mourinho says prefers to wait for next season to return
LONDON (Reuters) - Sacked Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said on Wednesday he is happy to wait for a new project and would prefer to resume his coaching career at the start of next season.
Heavily-linked with the Manchester United hot seat currently occupied by Dutchman Louis van Gaal, Mourinho told reporters on a visit to Singapore that he was in no rush.
"I miss football, yeah, and if I have to return tomorrow I will return tomorrow but I always feel it's better to wait, not to rush," Mourinho, whose second spell at Chelsea ended in December after a dismal run of results, said in an interview on Sky Sports on Wednesday.
"It's better to be calm and to wait for the right moment, the right move and starting the next season with a new club, a new project is probably the best thing for me."
Mourinho shrugged off the daily rumours about his future, one of which was fuelled by a remark from Inter Milan dignitary Bedy Moratti on Saturday saying he "is going to Manchester".
"I read so many different things, one day it says yes another day it says no, one day it says I go to China, another day it says I go to Italy, I go to Milan, people say I'm going back to Inter," he said.
"I'm here so they'll probably say I go to the Singapore national team. The reality is that I have no job and at this moment I'm happy at not having a job."
Mourinho was also coy about his future when asked by students at Singapore's North Light secondary school.
"That's the one million dollar question and nobody knows and I'm the first one not to know," Mourinho replied to the young United fan who asked if he would be heading to Old Trafford for next season.
"The reality is I like football so much and I miss football so when I get the chance to come back I will come back but I have to wait to see what happens."
Asked by a Chelsea-supporting student to look back on his experience and two spells with the London club, Mourinho had mixed feelings.
"Its quite a funny career because I am still the English champion and I have no job," the 53-year-old said. "I look more to the future, I look to the future with more enthusiasm. Now I enjoy my quiet life in this period when I'm not working in football and I hope in the summer I will be back."
Mourinho was joined by agent Jorge Mendes to speak with children at the school as part of Valencia chairman Peter Lim's Olympic scholarship.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman in London and Patrick Johnston in Singapore; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt/Mark Heinrich)