Former Netherlands international Wesley Sneijder has explained how he thinks former boss Jose Mourinho was able to lead Inter Milan to their first-ever treble season a decade ago.
Sneijder, 36, recently dispelled commonly held beliefs that the "Special One" is a control freak as a manager, and insisted the Portuguese tactician gives his players a lot of freedom off the pitch so that they can focus on winning matches on it.
"He (Mourinho) knew how to handle us so well. He said, 'I give you guys more freedom than you are used to and, in return, I get a better team,'" the former Inter midfielder said in his autobiography, as per the Daily Mirror.
"During games he demanded everything from us. But away from the pitch he gave us a lot of space. Drinking wine, fags (cigarettes)… I am sure he knew that we were doing this stuff.
"We were even free in our choice of what to wear. We had a sponsor for all our suits, but Mourinho said we did not have to wear suits if we didn't want to.
"He said, 'You are football players, not fashion puppets'. Only three things were important: train hard, keep focus and have fun.
"So we all wore our tracksuits or jeans. Everyone was wearing different coloured polo shirts. It was so funny – but no one at Inter had the guts to tackle Mourinho about this."
