Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has left a return to Inter Milan one day open by declaring his love for the Serie A club in an interview with UEFA.com.
Mourinho replied "why not?" when asked last week about possibly moving back to the Nerazzurri one day, admitting that he thinks finishing his career at Chelsea is unlikely.
The Portuguese's two-year spell in Italy was one of the most memorable in his career. He led the club to a historic Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League Treble in 2010, leaving on a high after beating Bayern Munich in the final at the Bernabeu, coincidentally to take charge at Real Madrid.
"Against Bayern, it was the game of their lives for many of my players," Mourinho said. "It was the last chance for [Javier] Zanetti, [Marco] Materazzi, [Ivan] Cordoba, [Cristian] Chivu and Maicon to do it.
"And we played that game with that mentality. We were not playing with XI, we were playing with thousands and thousands and thousands because Inter had waited a long time for that. We were very confident and it was a perfect way for me to leave such a club. A club I love so much.
"The [Inter] supporters are special. The president is more than special. It was a real family and that season we did everything. We won everything."
Mourinho has won the Champions League with two different clubs and could become the first coach to win that trophy with three if he can succeed with Chelsea, although he insists securing that personal record is not his motivation.
"That's not the objective -- the objective is to win a third one, it's not to have a record," he said. "If somebody does it before me, or if somebody wins it with four or five clubs, I don't care about that. I just want to win it with the club where I am.
"I have a very good group [of players], the relationships are very good. I think always that we have to go step by step, and the group phase is the first step. You have to finish in the top two and progress.
"When you get to the knockout stage, the unpredictability of every detail becomes fundamental. Only one can win, only two can reach the final. But that is the reality because this competition is the biggest competition in the world of football."