'Everyone just bought into it straight away'
Jose Mourinho had an "aura" that you just "had to follow", says former Chelsea defender Robert Huth.Wednesday, 30 April marks the 20th anniversary of Mourinho's first Premier League title win and the Blues' first league success for 50 years.Announcing his arrival to English football by calling himself "The Special One" in his first news conference, it made onlookers, including his new players, sit up and take notice."I was watching it [the first news conference] and I'd never seen someone with so much confidence, self-belief and it all transferred into the first meeting," Huth told BBC Radio 5 Live."Everyone just bought into it straight away. You could see the confidence straight away and it just got better and better. The standard got higher and higher."Success gives you the power to walk into a room with Roman Abramovich and be so demanding, and only he had the charisma to do it. He wanted 11 players that worked, he didn't want anyone to just drag along in a game. He wanted 11 workhorses and that's exactly what he signed."While not a regular starter, centre-back Huth was part of the team that won the league in Mourinho's first season in charge having conceded just 15 goals.Explaining how he convinced players to buy into his style and mentality, the 40-year-old said: "He was a dad kind of figure - he'd treat you harshly if you made a mistake, but if you did well he'd hug you and made sure you do it again. He had that aura about him where you knew you had to follow him."We had 25 players competing for a spot. The competition in the whole squad was unbelievable and every training session was like a fight."If someone had a bit of an injury and it was two weeks out, he'd go, 'can you make it four weeks?' Just so other players in the squad could play minutes. All these psychology things that he worked on, worked."He was hands on with his players and staff, and if they weren't performing to the level he wanted them to be, he'd have a go. He set the standards - first in the training ground, first on the pitch, last to leave."When you have a manager like that, you just buy into it and love it."Listen to more Mourinho chat in the final hour of the show
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