• Premier League

Chelsea 'open-minded' to Mourinho return

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Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has opened the door for Jose Mourinho to make his Stamford Bridge comeback after claiming he is "completely open minded" to the prospect of the club's most successful coach of the modern era returning this summer.

Even though Mourinho led Real Madrid to a second successive Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night, the 50-year-old tactician has done little to distance himself from rumours that he will quit his current job at the end of the season.

Now Buck appears to have given the green light to Mourinho's second stint as Chelsea boss, even though he was quick to point out that Blues owner Roman Abramovich has yet to make a definitive decision on who would become his next permanent manager.

"I am completely open-minded about it," he said when specifically pressed by reporters about the possibility of Mourinho being offered a second chance at Chelsea.

"We really haven't started that [process] yet. We're all thinking about it and have some ideas and certainly Mr Abramovich is thinking about it. At the moment we're concentrating on the end of the season."

Mourinho fuelled the belief that he may be heading back to Chelsea at the end of this season when he claimed he is likely return to one of his former clubs once his time as Real Madrid boss comes to an end.

Rumours that he has agreed a deal to manage Paris Saint-Germain have also persisted for many months, with Mourinho's confirmation earlier this week that he will sit down with Real Madrid officials to discuss his future in the summer viewed by many as a prelude to his departure from the Spanish club.

Buck added that Chelsea were keen to recruit a manager who will stay in the job for an extended period, even though owner Abramovich has a reputation for firing coaches with haste.

"I know we have fired what most people would say are a lot of managers - terminated the relationship is a better way to describe it - but we've always thought long and hard when we've done it," Buck told Al Jazeera at the Business of Sport summit in Singapore.

"It's always difficult, it's always sad when a relationship is terminated. We don't look back, we always look forward and see where we're going and figure out how we get there. We certainly believe in stability in managers, but it has to be with the right manager."

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