Chelsea signed Brazilian defender Alex in 2004, however, as a result of issues achieve a piece allow, the Blues loaned him out to PSV for 3 full seasons.
Ultimately, Alex joined up with the squad initially of the 2007/08 marketing campaign, with Jose Mourinho as his supervisor.
His relationship with Mourinho did not final lengthy, with the Portuguese boss sacked in September 2007, however Alex has fond reminiscences of working with him at Chelsea – not least the customary initiation tune he needed to carry out for his new teammates.
“He’s a beautiful individual,” Alex tells FourFourTwo about Mourinho. “Many individuals nonetheless ask me if he’s a troublesome coach to cope with – imagine me, I’ve solely good phrases to say about him.
“Sadly, we labored collectively for under three months. Once I joined Chelsea, I needed to sing in entrance of the entire squad; maybe it was the day that Mourinho laughed most in his whole life.
“I’m not an awesome singer. I believe I selected a gospel quantity, however in some unspecified time in the future Mourinho got here as much as the improvised stage and stated, “Sufficient, boy, you’re actually unhealthy’.”
After Mourinho’s departure, Alex had spells at Stamford Bridge below Luiz Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti and Andre Villas-Boas.
He solely ended up making 9 appearances in all competitions below Villas-Boas, regardless of solely being 29 and supposedly within the peak of his profession. The Portuguese disagreed, although, locking Alex and Nicolas Anelka out of Chelsea’s first staff dressing room as a result of they weren’t “dedicated” sufficient.
“I suffered a knee damage initially of the 2011-12 season and underwent surgical procedure, so I wasn’t obtainable when AVB took cost,” Alex describes. “Once I recovered, the staff wasn’t doing so properly. I didn’t play significantly nice, both.
“He needed to ship a message to the squad, and selected to depart Nicolas Anelka and I coaching individually from the primary staff. The following day, he stated we weren’t dedicated to the staff. We accepted his resolution – what else may we do? – however the worst half was when Anelka and I went to gather our issues and safety wouldn’t allow us to into the primary staff’s altering room.
“We have been requested to come back again one other time after the coaching session. That was a tragic episode. So, we educated with the reserves and fortuitously Paris Saint-Germain made me a proposal.”
