"Proud" Mourinho agrees compensation with Chelsea

LONDON - Chelsea confirmed Friday that they had reached agreement on a compensation package with former manager Jose Mourinho.

The manager left the club by mutual consent late on Wednesday and negotiations on his settlement stretched on into Thursday evening.

Mourinho had a contract until summer 2010, and it is understood he will be paid off in full - a total approaching 20 million pounds (40 million dollars).

The manager himself spoke of his satisfaction at what he had achieved with the club, winning two Premiership titles - the club's first for 50 years, two League Cups and an FA Cup.

"I am very proud of my work and I think my decision in May 2004 to come to England was an excellent one," he said.

"It was a beautiful and rich period of my career. I want to thank all Chelsea FC supporters for what I believe is a never-ending love story."

  Meanwhile various players have expressed their dismay at the loss of what defender Ricardo Carvalho described as "the best coach in the world."

"We are sad and we are shocked," the Portuguese defender told the Daily Mail.

"I never thought he would leave Chelsea without finishing his work, without achieving everything he wanted to.

"He loved Chelsea. It has come as an enormous surprise to all the players.

"In the past few weeks the coach was unhappy because of our bad results but we were all working together towards a solution."

Midfielder Claude Makelele admitted that whoever replaces Mourinho has an almost impossible act to follow.

"He faces a big challenge because he will always be compared to Mourinho by the press and the fans," he said, having compared the news of Mourinho's exit to "a bomb."   The club reiterated that Mourinho had neither resigned nor been sacked.

"We had all reached a point where the relationship between the club and Jose had broken down," it said in a statement posted on the club website.

"This was despite genuine attempts over several months by all parties to resolve certain differences.

 "The reason the decision has been taken is that we believed the breakdown started to impact on the performance of the team and recent results supported this view."

DPA