9 months ago
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Jose Mourinho loved his time at Manchester United but won't be returning to the dugout anytime soon.
The recently sacked Roma joined Rio Ferdinand on VIBE with FIVE, and candidly looked back fondly on his spell as Old Trafford boss.
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The Portuguese won the Carabao Cup and Europa League in his first season with the club, but only lasted just over two years before being sacked in December 2018.
Arriving as one of Europe's elite managers having won titles at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid, he enjoyed more success than any United manager since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and famously said finishing second in the Premier League in 2018 was one of his greatest achievements in football.
“I loved it, I loved my time there,” he said. “I was so proud of going there.
“I was even prouder when a couple of years later I went back as a Sky commentator with Roy Keane and felt the reaction of the crowd. I was like ‘wow’.
“I always felt like we were together in the time I was there, but to have that reaction touched me. I loved my time there.
“The club, the history, everything, to be a coach in the same club as Sir Alex, you have to feel it, you have to feel the pride and responsibility and I felt it.”
He continued: “I was very very proud to be there and it was not easy, I don’t think the media helped me.
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“It was not with an intention of hurting, but it was more the people didn’t understand the dimension of the job and the particular difficulties.”
Mourinho went on to explain those difficulties, namely the lack of cohesion above him between executives and the owners.
He also took time to defend former CEO Ed Woodward, who worked above him, later stepping aside in 2022.
Mourinho explained: “The coach was in a hybrid position because in the years before everything was clear with the ownership, Sir Alex and David Gill, that was changing and then the structure was not fluid.
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“When people criticise Ed Woodward’s job, I don’t like it because for me he’s a good man, but just a man who was like a fish out of water. Very intelligent, very polite, very correct, but not prepared for the sport side of it.
“For a coach not to have a direct communication with the owners and not to have a structure that shares the same principals and the same ideas was not easy and had consequences at many levels, but I did my best.
“I love the club, I love the fans, I hope that everything goes well, I’m waiting for Man United to become your Man United that I fell in love with.”
Like Mourinho, current manager Erik ten Hag won the Carabao Cup in his first season in charge and is now feeling the heat in some quarters.
Quizzed about the rumours claiming Mourinho is desperate to return to Old Trafford where he has ‘unfinished business’, he said: “No, not true. No, no, no.”
United are currently sixth in the Premier League and still in contention to finish in the top four.
