Mourinho, sacked by the Blues in September 2007, returned for the first time to take charge of Inter Milan's pre-match press conference.

The self-proclaimed 'Special One' won every domestic honour during his time as manager of the Blues including back-to-back Barclays Premier League titles.

Mourinho, despite winning the title in his first year with Inter and sitting one point clear at the top of Serie A, appears to have a more than frosty relationship with the Italian media.

And the former Chelsea boss made it clear that he plans to return to English football as part of his future career path.

"I have, as I said before, three things to do in my career - one is to come back to English football; another thing is to win the Spanish championship, because no-one has won Italian, English and Spanish titles; and another one, when I'm old, is to coach my national team. But, for now, I would like to keep winning with Inter."

Mourinho's relationship with the club's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich had become so strained that the club opted to axe him following a 1-1 draw with Rosenborg in the Champions League in 2007.

Asked what he might have achieved had he stayed at the club, Mourinho retorted: "I feel sorry but I look forward. I feel sorry because, when I look at the big four teams while I was in England, they (the managers) are all there.

"Sir Alex Ferguson is here. Arsene Wenger is here. Rafa Benitez is here. I did more than enough to be here. But the decision was made.

"Chelsea looked forward. I look forward. They move on. I move on. I keep winning important things. They keep winning...something.

"They won an FA Cup. The most important thing is the relation we have. No regrets, no big problems. Just respect.

"In football, coming back to an old team, it's important to feel like I feel. It's one of the most beautiful things in football. They move on, I move on."

But Mourinho did have one regret and that was the timing of his exit because it left him outside of the game he loves.

Mourinho explained: "Change one thing? It would be...I would have left the day after the FA Cup final after my third season.

"The timing was wrong. I waited three or four more months more and, after that, I left in September and I didn't enjoy my time from then to the day I went to Inter.

"For me, being away from football is too painful. If I had left Chelsea in May, I would have started the next season in a new club and I would not have been without football for six or seven months."

While Chelsea have goalkeeping problems, the Italian media are gunning for Mourinho after he left striker Mario Balotelli out of his squad for the shock defeat by Catania on Friday night.

The two are believed to have had an argument after the previous game against Genoa when Balotelli claimed he had a fever, which prompted him to be sick at half-time.

He has now been left out of the squad for the clash with Chelsea and Mourinho was clearly on the defensive.

"I don't want to talk about him," said Mourinho. "He won't be here. He won't be at the match.

"I can explain whey I called up the other 20 players. It's more important to talk about the players who will be there tomorrow, not those that are not."

And then there is the referee Wolfgang Stark - an official with history where Inter are concerned.

"We were talking about the referee, but we know that Inter lost against Arsenal, Valencia and Manchester United with this referee," said Mourinho.

"But I don't believe in bad luck. What's more important is to have a good performance."