Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has ridiculed Paris Saint-Germain’s idea of rewarding their players with bonuses if they manage to overcome Chelsea in tonight’s clash in the round-of-16 tie of the UEFA Champions League.
PSG rewarded their players with a 100,000 after they progressed to the last 16 in December and will pay them a 250,000 if they progress to the quarter-finals tonight. The Paris-based club already pay good wages to most of the players, so it does come as a surprise that the club hierarchy is using the cash-based incentive to motivate the players.
Mourinho slammed the idea and said that he received bonuses for only winning competitions which is something that is understandable, “You know, for a long, long, long time, I don’t have bonuses. I just have bonuses to win competitions. So I forgot that feeling.
“I had that feeling, but the last time was at Porto. I never had a bonus (like that) again and I don’t think we should.”
“The club pay us a very good salary to do our job the best we can.
“We do that job as best we can. If we take the club into quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals, but we don’t win the competition, we are doing a very good job for the club financially but I don’t think we should get extra money, on top of our salaries, if we don’t win the last prize.
“It’s nice I think if somebody puts on the table 250,000 euros or pounds to win a certain match, it’s nice. But I think professionalism goes above and beyond that.”
“Football is about our passion for the game, the happiness and the pride of victories. They have no price,” the Portuguese added.
Despite the draw in the last game, Chelsea are ahead in the tie thanks to the away goal that they managed to score in Paris. PSG dominated the game, but couldn’t take their chances which could come back to haunt them tonight. However, the tie will be very different when compared to last season’s game when PSG came went to Stamford Bridge with a two goal cushion and played defensively. This time, Laurent Blanc will have to set up his side with an attacking mindset as PSG have to score a goal if they are to progress into the next round. That could play into Chelsea’s hands as the Londoners are a good counter-attacking team.