It is a tribute to José Mourinho’s penchant for the sabre-toothed soundbite that he declared his undying love for Chelsea moments before talking of killing them in next season’s Champions League. The Valencia Opera House was a suitable venue for the drama king’s return to the spotlight, but even before entering that arena to let his acid tongue loose on Avram Grant and the 39th game, he had launched an astonishing attack on Arsène Wenger in an Italian newspaper. The really bad news for the Arsenal manager, though, is that The Special One wants to come back.

“Arsenal is a unique team,” Mourinho said in Gazzetta Della Sport. “Their coach hasn’t won anything for years and is still an idol. There is no pressure at Arsenal. But do not say he is growing young players into talents. What he does is take young players who are jewels and polishes them. It’s different. He has time to work in a serene atmosphere and get results.”

Mourinho had clearly warmed up nicely with that diatribe by the time he made his first public appearance since leaving Chelsea last September. His opinion of Grant, the first-team coach at Stamford Bridge? “I feel nothing for him and everything for the club. I was at the club for 3½ years and we shared the same club for a couple of months. I have Chelsea in my heart for ever.

“Last week I was speaking with Mr Abramovich and Peter Kenyon \ — because I still keep in touch — and I was saying that I wish them always to succeed. But I hope to play them in the Champions League next season. And if I play them in the Champions League, I want to go there and kill them. That’s my nature.”

Although Mourinho did not rule out returning to the Barclays Premier League next season, his next move will almost certainly be in Spain or Italy, with Barcelona top of the rumour tree, although he was in finger-wagging mode when the subject of the Catalan giants was raised.

“You are very bad. Ha, ha, ha. I don’t lie, so let me get this straight,” he said. “I don’t have a club. I don’t have a signature. There is no pre-contract, no verbal contract, no cowboy contract. I have been linked with ten clubs, but it is all lies.”

What is certain is that he wants to return to England. “Just because I am not working any more in English football, my feelings haven’t changed,” he said. “I don’t hide that I was deeply in love with English football and that I will be back — not the next step, but I want to be back one day. I have so many super-great memories of England that even if I go to another football country, like I hope to, I will always be in love with England.”

Mourinho denied agreeing to a clause preventing him from managing another Premiership club next season. “I can work there if I want,” he said. “My house is in London, my friends are there.” Given this paean to things Blighty, why not come home? “Even if you’re in love with a cause, there is a moment when you realise you have to stop,” he said. “But Chelsea was a beautiful period in my career.”

If Wenger and Grant do not impress him, one man who does is Fabio Capello. It would have been riotous to have an England manager who has married footballing success with soap operas about woolly hats, Yorkshire terriers and the South Central Ambulance Service, but Mourinho clearly believes that we can cope without him.

“England is in great hands,” he said. “They got the right person. I admire him very much. Fabio must be the person to push them in the right direction.” However, he feels that the FA is “waiting for the revolution” when it can appoint a home-grown leader.

As for the Premiership’s 39th game, he had typically colourful views. “If they want to do something abroad, why not play the Charity Shield in New York or the Carling Cup Final in Tokyo?” he said. “Football is culturally and socially an incredible phenomenon, and at the same time it is an industry. It’s about euros and dollars and pounds. But I am a man from the passionate side. I’m so much in love with the English game and the Premiership that if I was in a position to say yes or no, we would play every Premiership game in England.”

Grant will be interested to note that Mourinho is still in touch with Abramovich and players such as Michael Ballack, once damned by his former manager for not being a team player but now about to buy a place next door to Mourinho on a Portuguese beach.

Wenger, meanwhile, must be flabbergasted that, separated by a sea and a sabbatical, Mourinho can still stoke a fire like a champion pyromaniac.