When Mourinho ghosted Eto'o to get best out of him

It is early 2010 in northern Italy.

The Champions League knockout stages are under way and Inter Milan are preparing to travel to Stamford Bridge with a one-goal first-leg lead to their name, following a 2-1 triumph in the San Siro a few weeks earlier.

Inter manager Jose Mourinho should be worrying about how to protect that slender lead against his former employers.

Having won the Champions League in 2004 with Porto, his career in Europe since then has been one of near-misses and might-have-beens, most notably with the 2005 ghost goal semi-final defeat against Liverpool while managing Chelsea.

Mourinho is indeed knee deep in one of his meticulous, manipulative, man-management moments that he hopes will become a masterclass, but could just as easily backfire spectacularly.

The pre-match news conference surely? An incendiary remark about the opposition? Or an outlandish dig at the referee appointed for the big match?

No. In fact it's a more inward-looking, insular moment that the man himself reveals in an in-depth exclusive interview for the BBC Sport documentary How to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho.

Inter forward Samuel Eto'o was desperate to be a part of the last-16 second-leg tie at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho was equally keen on Eto'o's involvement - he'd been a key lieutenant in their run to the knockout stages having signed from Barcelona the summer before. But, Mourinho believed he could glean an extra few percent out of the Cameroonian if he told him the completely opposite.

Less ghost goal, more ghosting.

"Psychology is part of the job and is part of the game with the players," said Mourinho.

"The way you deal with the press is not going to win matches. Not at all.

"But, with the players? Yes. And, you know, I had I think, hundreds of players [during my career].

"I always looked at each one of them as a different guy than the other guys. Every person is one individual.

"I give you an example of a very strong-minded guy, Samuel Eto'o. The week before that match at Stamford Bridge, I fought him every day. Big, big discussions, big level of pressure.

"I told him: 'I'm not going to play you. You are not in your best level. You are not going to play'.

"He said: 'Please Mr, let me play'.

"I said: 'No, there is no 'please Mr' - you are not going to play. You are not performing. I don't trust you'.

"It was one week of an emotional work with him."

Mourinho has been infamous for his emotional pre-match mind games throughout his career. The pre-match news conference effectively acting as a de-facto kick-off for the game itself.

But, usually, this manipulation was trained on the opposition, not his own squad. So, how did Eto'o react?

"Samuel won us that quarter-final against Chelsea. He scored the winning goal at Stamford Bridge. He played a fantastic match," says Mourinho of a performance from Eto'o that saw him score the only goal and send the Italian side through to the quarter-finals of a tournament they would go on to win.

"He was such a strong guy that I knew that he would react the way he did react."

How to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho focuses on the Portuguese manager's two Champions League triumphs - in 2004, with Porto, and that 2010 win with Inter.

Modern-day Mourinho has had his man-management sometimes called into question - think Dele Alli at Tottenham and Paul Pogba at Manchester United.

But, as the Portuguese manager happily explains, and Eto'o embodied, Mourinho, circa 2010, was in his perfect phase of extracting the best from his players. It's a bullish approach that feels a little outdated in the current climate of player power - but, as Eto'o and Mourinho explain, it worked perfectly back then.

"It made me extremely happy that... Mourinho told me he needed me to do something particular," Eto'o said at the time. "He wanted a very disciplined role and, because I respect him so much, I said, 'Yes, coach' and stuck to my task exactly."

Fifteen years later, in a west London hotel, Mourinho is similarly happy to reflect on his methodology.

"That individual way of communicating, of motivation, is always something very, very important," he says. "There is no secret. It is just to look at each one of them, to know them, to understand them, and to deal with them as a complete individual. Like you would if you had one son and one daughter. You cannot educate both in the same way because they are different."

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.