Jose Mourinho is doing his best to convince that he is new man upon his return to Chelsea.

Notoriously power hungry in the past, as recently as two seasons ago he endured a hard-fought battle to wrest total control behind the scenes at Real Madrid from Los Blancis legend Jorge Valdano.

And his power struggles with Chelsea Roman Abramovich contributed to his original sacking at Stamford Bridge, as much as he likes to say he always saw eye to eye with the Russian oligarch.

Back at Chelsea, Mourinho has to work alongside the club’s technical director, Michael Emanalo, in the kind of relationship that will naturally dilute his total influence on the club’s affairs.

But this time around, The Special One says he has no problems functioning in a team, as part of the Chelsea brains trust alongside Emanalo.

"Michael is working well," said Mourinho.

"It's important you have around you some structures that can deliver the best possible information, especially the scouting area is a very difficult area for a person like me.

"I cannot travel because I have more important things to do inside the club. I also cannot travel because if I do, everybody knows I'm travelling. Everybody knows who I am, everybody knows the player I'm looking for, everybody starts with big speculation.

"You cannot just find a player when he is 24, 25, 26 and he is in the best moment of his career. You have to start before, you cannot do it without a structure.

"The club are doing good work there. Michael and his staff will provide me with the kind of information I need."

Having expressed his willingness to defer, perhaps for the first time in his managerial career since he was cutting his teeth at Porto, Mourinho still cannot resist the temptation to suggest that Chelsea are still reaping the benefits of his first, more independent reign at the club.

"I heard one manager here, I think it was (Luis Felipe) Scolari, that when he came to Chelsea he was saying; 'I never saw a club with such organisation in the analysis department," he added. "I never saw such a group of players with a working ethic.',” he said.

"That was two or three years after me and I said to myself and my assistants that even though he never mentioned my name, this was a big compliment.

"He doesn't have to mention my name because it was my working ethic, it's my group of players, it's my department of analysis and preparation of matches. It's my work, that's success."