• Club have failed since I left, says Inter coach
• Return to Premier League remains an ambition

José Mourinho breezed back into Stamford Bridge last night to declare he was "home" and should still be Chelsea's manager.
The Internazionale coach pointed out that while he has continued to accumulate silverware in Italy his former club have one FA Cup to show for the three years since his departure.

The Portuguese veered from an initially diplomatic script, marked by an admission that he would tone down his celebrations should the Italian champions eliminate their hosts from the Champions League this evening, to suggest some level of regret at the fracture of his relationship with Roman Abramovich after his glittering three-year spell in charge at the London club.

"I feel sorry but I look forward," said Mourinho.
"I feel sorry because when I look at the big four teams from when I was in England, the managers are all still there: Sir Alex [Ferguson] is there.
[Arsène] Wenger is there.
[Rafael] Benítez is there.
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.

"I have nothing to prove to Chelsea: to Chelsea's players, to Chelsea's fans, to Chelsea's board.
The relations are great.
When it's possible, happiness for me and happiness for them is the perfect situation.
I don't believe I will be booed.
I believe I will be clapped.
But, for me, this game is just about getting to the quarter-finals.
It doesn't mean anything else to me at all."

• Ancelotti: I've given Abramovich the style he wants
• Kevin McCarra: Chelsea are still good enough to progress
• Mourinho era in the past says Malouda

His only regret concerned the timing of his eventual departure, with Mourinho conceding he should have left Stamford Bridge on his own terms immediately after claiming the FA Cup in 2007.
By then his relationship with Abramovich had fractured beyond repair, though the Portuguese was persuaded to remain at the club, only to be forced out in September of that year after a sluggish start to the following season.

Asked if there was one thing he could change from his time at Chelsea, he said: "I would have left the day after the FA Cup final at the end of that third season.
The timing was wrong [when I eventually did leave].
I waited until September and I didn't enjoy my time after I left until I went to Inter.
Being away from football was too painful.
If I'd left in May I would have started the next season at a new club."

Inter – with whom he claimed the domestic title last season – may top Serie A again, albeit by a solitary point, but the 47-year-old is enduring a relatively torrid time in Italy at present.
Defeat at lowly Catania last Friday has allowed Milan to gain ground in the championship race, while Mourinho and his Italian striker Mario Balotelli were reportedly embroiled in a spat at training in Milan today which has resulted in the forward being omitted from the squad for disciplinary reasons.
Carlo Ancelotti has since suggested he might seek to work with Balotelli at Chelsea.

In the circumstances, and with his relations with the Italian press clearly strained, Mourinho appeared to relish a return to London and familiar haunts.
"I feel at home," he said.

"I opened the door, went up to the second floor where there are people I know; to the third floor where there are people I know.
The players didn't come to see me but they are working, or at the team hotel.
Before the game I know everybody and I love them, and after the game the same, but, for 90 minutes on Tuesday night, I'll know nobody.

"I'll be restrained if we win, yes.
Because it's Chelsea.
Because it's the team where I worked for three and a half years, the same players, the same supporters who made me feel incredible every time we played in this stadium.
But don't confuse this emotional control with a lack of professionalism or of me not having a desire to win.
I watched the first leg seven times on DVD, stopping and going back over and over again.
Chelsea is different and I have to be different but I gave everything to prepare for this game.
So don't confuse my feelings for my ex-players and my ex-club with any lack of desire or motivation to win this game."

The Inter manager was confident enough to name seven of his starting line-up for this evening's collision with Ancelotti – with whom he endured a troubled relationship last season when they were on opposite sides of Milan – and said that his former club were in safe hands under their current manager.
Mourinho said: "They have a good chef, yes, a chef with experience and with knowledge of the ingredients that football needs.
They are in good hands."

Yet Mourinho still has designs to return to the Premier League in the future.
"I have three things still to do in my career," the Portuguese said.
"One thing is to come back to English football.
Another is to win the Spanish championship, because no one has won Italian, English and Spanish titles.

"And another, when I'm old, is to coach my national team.
But, for now, I would like to keep winning with Inter.

"I will still be the Special One whatever happens.
How old is Giovanni Trapattoni?
Seventy?
I want to coach as long as him but, even at that age, I will still have things to prove.
That's my motivation.
So, after this game, I will still be the Special One.
Win or lose."

• Winding-up order suspended by high court
• Club granted permission to have entered administration

HM Revenue and Customs today officially dropped its challenge over Portsmouth's move into administration and said it "offers the best chance of the club surviving".

It means that the crisis-hit football club, who owe £65million, will not face a winding-up petition.

Gregory Mitchell QC, representing HMRC, told the high court judge Mr Justice Lewison that there would now be a meeting of creditors, including HMRC, which took action because the club owed more than £12m in unpaid VAT and PAYE.

He said Portsmouth had now supplied details about their financial affairs and after a meeting with the administrators, HMRC had been reassured about their independence.

"We take the view that the continuation of the administration offers the best chance of the club surviving and of a return to the creditors, including HMRC."

• Liverpool captain appeared to elbow Portsmouth's Brown
• United express anger in private after Ferdinand ban

Steven Gerrard has escaped disciplinary action over for the use of his forearm against Portsmouth's Michael Brown in Liverpool's 4-1 win yesterday.
The decision has incensed Manchester United and led to allegations that the Football Association has employed double standards.
Had he been found guilty of violent conduct, Gerrard would have been banned from Liverpool's trip to Old Trafford on Sunday.
The collision with Gerrard knocked Brown to the floor.

United's anger stems mostly from the fact that the defender Rio Ferdinand was banned for three games for swinging an arm into the face of Craig Fagan during a 4-0 win against Hull in January.
That punishment was increased by one match after Ferdinand appealed.
The champions will not make official comment on Gerrard's case but privately they have admitted to being surprised by the verdict and not understanding why the Liverpool captain has been let off.
The ruling is also likely to go down badly among Liverpool's rivals for the fourth Champions League place.

The FA says it cannot act because the referee concerned, Stuart Attwell, has maintained that Gerrard's offence did not merit a booking or a red card.

In Ferdinand's case, the incident was missed by the referee, Steve Bennett, who said that he would have shown a red card had he seen it.
Attwell has told the FA that he was satisfied with how he dealt with the incident, by awarding Portsmouth a free-kick and speaking to Gerrard.

The United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, feels that his team are punished more severely than other clubs.
At Ferdinand's hearing United's legal team cited the FA's failure to charge Liverpool's Javier Mascherano over a similar incident involving the Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford at Elland Road in September.

Attwell's view that he was in control of the incident is unlikely to improve his reputation.
The youngest Premier League referee by some distance, at 27, he has become known for mistakes, most notoriously the award of a "ghost goal" in a match between Watford and Reading in September 2008.

Gerrard escaped punishment from the FA last week after making a two-fingered gesture towards the referee Andre Marriner in a 1-0 defeat at Wigan.
Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, responded to Monday's incident by substituting his captain.

• Operation on England midfielder in Finland successful
• Beckham concentrating on 'getting back to full fitness'

David Beckham has said he is "feeling positive" following surgery on his achilles tendon, in Turku, Finland.

The England midfielder was operated on yesterday by the surgeon Sakari Orava after picking up an injury playing for Milan on Sunday.
As a result he will miss the World Cup, but the player told his website: "I'm feeling positive and now concentrating on getting back to full fitness over the coming months.

"The operation was a success and I'd like to thank Dr Orava and all the medical staff who looked after me during my time in Finland.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their messages of support, they mean a lot to me."

Beckham, who will be 35 in May, is expected to be out of action for five months.
Asked whether he thought the midfielder could play in the World Cup, Dr Orava said: "No, I don't think so...
healing takes a long time.

"It is difficult to say how long the recovery period will be but I would guess it will be three or four months and, for example, for running it usually takes four or five months until one can do it properly."

There had been speculation the injury could end Beckham's career, but the England manager, Fabio Capello, last night suggested he could add to his 115 caps in the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.
Beckham had been playing in Italy with Milan on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy to maximise his chances of playing in South Africa this summer.

The former England captain today received a message of support from Gordon Brown, the prime minister's spokesman confirmed.
"The prime minister has indeed sent him [Beckham] a message," the spokesman said.
"He emphasised what a tremendous ambassador Mr Beckham is for English soccer and wishes him well in his recovery, as I think the whole nation does."

• Club says worker refused to follow 'strict uniform policy'
• Players and MUTV banned from discussing dissent

A student working part-time in an Old Trafford catering kiosk has become the latest individual connected with Manchester United to claim he has felt the strength of the club's backlash against protests targeting the Glazers.

Jerry Vyse, a first-year anthropology student at Manchester University, said he bought a green and gold scarf outside the ground and wore it during his half-time shift at last week's Champions League match against Milan only to be sacked when he refused to remove it.

He said that supporters stocking up on half-time pies and Bovril cheered his stance and booed when his supervisor put the queue on hold and asked him to leave the kiosk, marching him to the office of the catering manager.

"I turned to the supervisor and asked him why I could not continue doing my job," Vyse told Student Direct, the Manchester University newspaper and website.
"He said it was not because I was wearing a scarf because, if it had been a different colour, he would not have minded.

"MUFC will no doubt state that the decision was based on uniform policy – what he told me surely refutes that.
He said it was because it was 'anti-Glazer'.
Does it not sniff a little bit like a dictatorship if not even the smallest of dissents can be made about an incredibly rich man who has more or less taken over the club?"

The Champions League tie was largely seen as a triumph for the protesters targeting the Glazers and supporting a potential takeover bid from the self-styled Red Knights, with David Beckham donning a green and gold scarf as he left the pitch following loud protests during the game.

In an attempt to quell the dissent United have banned players from discussing the campaign, forbidden the inhouse TV channel MUTV from mentioning it and sacked a steward after 19 years' service for attempting to return an anti-Glazer banner to its owners.

A spokesman for United said that Vyse did not comply with the club's uniform policy and refused to remove the scarf when asked.

United's chief executive, David Gill, today again defended the club's business model as he unveiled its latest overseas sponsorship deal, with Turkish Airlines.
"People presuppose we have financial problems," he said.
"We do not believe that is the correct situation.
We are very comfortable and we have a sensible business strategy that will continue for many years to come." The Glazers have hugely increased the club's commercial revenues and plan to agressively target further expansion in overseas markets."We have 333 million followers and yesterday we celebrated 100 years at this great stadium," said Gill.

"Our history and heritage means we can bring a lot to the table.
There is also a professionalism about us, so, whilst we are in an economic downturn, there are still many successful companies in the world who are investing in the future.
We are one of the quality partners big entities can still associate with."