‘He always used to dig me out and he used to dig a few of the others out,’ he says.
‘He had us in after we got beaten at the Nou Camp and he sat down and went through us one by one.
‘He said: “You think you’re a top player? You froze at the Nou Camp you. You’re a French international, you’re supposed to be good.”
‘He went through and he absolutely crucified everyone.
‘He came to me and I thought he’d do me a left hook, he came to me and Duffer (Damien Duff) and said: “You two, OK.”
Chelsea went on to win the tie against Barcelona with a famous home victory and in the podcast, Cole credits Mourinho with changing the attitude at the club and turning us into serial trophy winners.
‘It was a nice football team, and he recognised that, Jose, and said “I want to make these the (most horrible) bunch to play against and everyone’s going to hate me.”
‘The manager spiced it up and we obliged.’
Robben sorry to quit
One of Joe Cole’s team-mates in the back-to-back Premier League title wins of 2005 and 2006, Arjen Robben, has announced the end of his playing career and his club Groningen revealed they had hoped the 37-year-old would continue on for one more season.
Speaking on his club’s official website, Groningen technical director Mark-Jan Fledderus said: ‘It was common knowledge that we really wanted Arjen to stick with it for another year, but we also said that we appreciate and respect every decision made by him.