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Mourinho eyes up a bubble at Upton Park last weekend. Sang Tan/AP/Press Association Images
The Borrower

Fernando Torres lent Jose Mourinho a set of hair clippers to shave his head

The Chelsea boss also told the media that he sent his wife a picture to get her approval.

JOSE MOURINHO HAS admitted borrowing a hair clippers from Chelsea player Fernando Torres to give himself a new hairstyle.

The former Real Madrid boss borrowed hair clippers from the Spanish striker, cut his hair himself and then sent a picture to his wife for her approval before heading home.

Asked why he cut his hair, Mourinho said: “Some people can’t do what I did. In a couple of months I’ll have hair again. Some other people cannot do it.

“I decided to do it. I asked Fernando to give me his machine and I did it myself in front of the mirror. It’s nice and cheap.

Mrs Mourinho, I sent a picture before I arrived at home to see if I could go in. Yes, no problem.”

Mourinho’s team can guarantee their place in the knock-out stages with a draw against Basel in Switzerland tonight, while a victory would ensure they are certain to finish top of Group E ahead of their final fixture against Steaua Bucharest.

That clash with Steaua comes in the middle of a busy December for Chelsea and Mourinho would prefer to be able to rest players when the Romanians visit Stamford Bridge.

With that in mind, Mourinho has challenged his players to show they can finish off Basel, who are four points behind Chelsea in third place.

“It’s a period I like,” Mourinho said of the hectic fixture December schedule. “It’s a period where I think only the braves can survive because it’s hard.

“We go into the Christmas period and the accumulation of matches is so high, but we do it as a special group with a special mentality, enjoying the situation, forgetting we don’t have a Christmas (break) like the Spanish, Italian and German players.

“I enjoyed the busy period when I was in England and I missed it when I was in Spain and Italy.

“Now I’m back I want to enjoy it, I want the players to enjoy it, and we need a special mentality to cope with that situation.

Nine matches and one of them is the match against Steaua. That’s our motivation for tomorrow (Tuesday), to try to kill the situation in the group phase and give us a little bit of space in December; instead of having nine real, competitive matches, we only have eight.”

Basel must match Schalke’s result against Steaua on Tuesday and then beat the Germans next month to qualify for the last 16 and Mourinho hopes the strain of having no margin for error will prove too much for the Swiss side, who claimed a shock win at the Bridge earlier in the season.

© AFP 2013

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