Mourinho wants PSG in Champions League draw

While many fans would prefer getting one of the knockout stage's (relative) minnows in next week's Champions League draw, Jose Mourinho is having none of that nonsense. Paris Saint-Germain are Chelsea's most difficult possible opponents? No big deal: bring them on:

We don’t have much choice, there are only five possibilities, but to make it easy for everybody, I would say Paris Saint-Germain. It’s easy for us to travel, easy for the fans to travel and they won’t have to spend a lot of money to go there. They are a very good team and I would prefer a really good team, which will motivate the boys. So, if I could choose, even though I can’t, I would say Paris.

Source: ChelseaFC.com.

The travel is something that I suspect managers think about far more often than non-travelling fans do. Sure, a team like Shakhtar Donetsk might be relatively weak compared to the Blues, but (hypothetically) flying to and from Ukraine is going to have a major impact both on the game itself and all of the surrounding fixtures. So the logistics favour PSG, even if the quality of opposition doesn't.

And at the end of the day, we're in this competition to win it. While 'easier' competition would be nice, if we can't beat the likes of PSG, we're not as good as we want to be. Bring it on, in other words.