Damien Duff finished up his final season in English football at the weekend and his former manager at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho made some touching comments about the Irish winger.
I remember that he was one of the guys that left Cobham crying and left the people here crying... He had a big influence on our style of play.
He didn’t want to go but he wants to play every game and he wants to enjoy his football and Chelsea at that time was Duff, [Arjen] Robben, Joe Cole. We had so much.
The offer from Newcastle came. He wanted to accept but he didn’t want to
Duff was signed by Claudio Ranieri during the summer of 2003. When Mourinho arrived, he brought Arjen Robben with him, threatening Duff's place, however, the Duffer was able to move over to the right side of midfield and the team contained both of them for most of the season. Duff scored 10 goals from right midfield as Chelsea romped to the League title. He left in the summer of 2006 after helping Chelsea and Mourinho to their successive League title.
