Real Madrid assistant and Jose Mourinho right-hand man Aitor Karanka has gone a long way towards confirming the long-nearly-confirmed return of his boss, Jose Mourinho, to his former club Chelsea. According to this piece in the Sun, which has since been widely-reported elsewhere, the Spaniard has an offer on the table to replace Bolo Zenden as Chelsea's assistant manager. If Real Madrid agree to it, that is. You see, he's not technically free to leave, as his manager is.
Mourinho offered me to go with him but Real Madrid haven’t told me I’m to be released."I’ve still got three years left on my contract and I’d have to pay them to leave.
"If I leave, then I’ll join Mourinho at Chelsea, or else I’ll go and become head coach at a French top division club."
That's pretty simple, right? Karanka will be Jose's No. 2 at Chelsea, unless he isn't. To be honest, I'm not that bothered whether Karanka joins. Don't get me wrong, he's a more-than-competent assistant, and probably should be a boss in his own right somewhere. If he does join Jose here, it's nothing to cry about. Jose trusts him, which should probably be enough.
The important thing, however, is that, in his own roundabout way, he's definitely confirming Mourinho's return. There's not even a MOUCON level appropriate for this. It's been all-but-confirmed for ages, of course, but when a close associate and confidant of the manager up-and-confirms it, it's pretty much done. Karanka has been described as "invaluable" to Mourinho. If anything is happening with regard to Jose, Karanka would know. There's still going to be some tiny shred of doubt until it's up on the club website, but this is just about as good.
I'm not sure how much I trust a source as a vague as "One of Mourinho’s regular coaching staff," but whoever that is* has been quoted as saying,
"We’re travelling to London on Sunday or Monday when we’ll be presented as Chelsea’s new coaching team.
"Mourinho wants to enjoy the good relationship he knows he can have in England and which he didn’t have in Spain."
If the Karanka quotes didn't convince you, I'm not sure these quotes from a random person in Mourinho's backroom staff will do anything for you. Either way, it's about 99.99% sure to happen. It wouldn't be the first time some kind of stupid twist of fate prevented Chelsea from getting that last 0.01%. Hopefully the club can put us out of our misery and finally confirm this in the coming days. Look for a confirmation on Monday or Tuesday. Until then, just stay calm and laugh at the stupid transfer rumours like "David Luiz to be sold for land shares on the Moon."
[*Dave the Janitor.]