Jose Mourinho has claimed he was close to accepting the England job in 2007 until realising he risked being bored during the long gaps between matches.The Football Association maintained that Fabio Capello was always its first choice to succeed Steve McClaren, but Mourinho has claimed he was in talks with the FA and close to accepting the job.

'My plan at that time was just to try to motivate myself for a job (with England) that doesn't fulfil me,' he said in the Independent.

'What do I do? During the day I'm not training players, so I have to go and see them train in their clubs. I have to send my goalkeeper coach to work separately. I have to do this, I have to do that.

'At weekends, I see every match. I need a good apartment. I need to analyse and monitor the players.

'When they were speaking to me, the next match was France against England, a friendly in Paris. I thought, 'France-England' (is an attractive prospect).

'After that, what's the next game? The next was one month later against Kazakhstan - no, no, no, no. We have contact and I thought about England. I was very young and I was very proud.'