Former-Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho speaks out for first time since sacking – FIND OUT WHAT HE SAID HERE!
By Ollie Slack
Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has spoken out for the first time since being sacked by the club in November, with The Telegraph. The Portuguese-man does not refer to the club at all throughout his interview but reading between the lines it is possible to join the dots and work out why it didn’t work out for him, from his point of view.
Mourinho was doing some work for Spanish TV in a studio in the city he lives, London. The Telegraph’s Sam Wallace had the pleasure of interviewing him, whilst he analysed the second half of the Carabao Cup final between his former club Chelsea and Manchester City.
The interview started with some comments on how Mourinho believes pundits should analyse what a manager is trying to do tactically within a match rather than critique it. However, the conversation soon moved on to the elephant in the room, his time at Manchester United, well, not specifically.
Mourinho doesn’t talk about his former clubs much after departing, not officially anyway. He may make a little slur in a press conference in the build-up to a match, but, probably mostly to do with the deal arranged with the club when he is paid off, he rarely goes in hard on his former teams.
So, therefore we are left to pick at the bones of what he has said and try and link it to experiences we are aware of.
"“People used to say that you learn more with defeat. Maybe there is some truth in it. I feel my natural habitat is winning.“I didn’t win any trophy for 18 months. Now I have time for thinking, reflection, trying to understand everything and trying to be more ready for the next one that is coming. I know it is coming. It hasn’t come yet because what has come along, I didn’t want.”"
Most will be surprised to hear that Mourinho has taken jobs he hasn’t wanted, but it becomes clear later on in the interview that perhaps he is talking more about certain inner complexities of how a club is run that he, in the future, will not be so keen to associate himself with.
Mourinho wants the structure to be harmonious, something perhaps it wasn’t with Ed Woodward and Manchester United
It seems, now at 56, Mourinho’s search for his next challenge is ideological, therefore perhaps, unrealistic. But he has the CV to be picky, having won 25 honours, including eight league titles in four different countries.
"“When that job comes, I want to be full of joy, of energy and knowledge”.“I don’t want an internal conflict,”“I want to work in a club that understands there is a structure in place. I don’t want to work in a structure of no coincidence [unity] in the thinking.“During my career I have been working in every possible circumstance. The most successful situations are not because of the structure but because of the empathy in the structure.”"
Mourinho is suggesting here that in spells at previous clubs, he has worked within a structure where there has been a number of disagreements, or perhaps people not singing from the same hymn sheet.
His relationship with Ed Woodward was always ambiguous. When Mourinho first arrived at the club, it seemed to be the former-Chelsea manager who wore the trousers. He demanded four signings and he got four signings, breaking the transfer record for Paul Pogba too.
In his second summer transfer window, Mourinho again wanted four players but this time only got three – he started to grumble a little. And finally, in United’s last summer transfer window, it seemed Ed Woodward had won the tug of war, denying the Portuguese-man a centre half.
The issues of the modern game according to Jose Mourinho
Mourinho also repeated his concerns about the difficulties of managing the modern day player, which he often bemoaned whilst at United.
"“You now have a generation of players who are not just players but the whole package. You have the player, the family, the agent, the entourage, the director of communication. You sometimes have the individual’s medical people and in an extreme situation you even have what they call their ‘personal fitness guys’. When you have a player you have all these distractions. And if there is no empathy in the structure of the club you get into so many contradictions that it is really, really difficult to work.”"
Finally, one of the other things Jose Mourinho mentioned to Sam Wallace which clears a distinct path to a certain problem he seemed to encounter whilst at United, was his thoughts on leaders in sport.
Mourinho talked of how analysing different leaders is something he “think(s) a lot” about. How there are both negative and positive leaders and not every leader is going to be of aid to you. Sam Wallace believes this is relatable to his time at Manchester United.
"“When you talk about leaders in history you find incredibly negative leaders in the history of humanity. When you talk about football you connect a leader with the positive leadership. But a negative leader is also a leader. It is not that every leader you find along the road is a positive leader that is going to help you to achieve your objectives. Along the road you find also the negative leaders and they are as much leaders as positive leaders. These are the kind of situations that I have to prepare myself.”"
In the modern game, leaders in football are something which almost every team seem to be searching for. How many of the top six sides would you say possess a stereotypical leader? Vincent Kompany, Harry Kane, Cesar Azpilicueta, Jordan Henderson, Ashley Young and Petr Cech come to mind. That’s only one per team and all of them have been around for five or more years. There may be more, but It’s difficult to put your finger on a player who has recently emerged as a natural leader.
And when Mourinho talks about “negative leaders”, is he referring to a Manchester United player indirectly? The first person that comes to mind is Paul Pogba. A man who is popular in the dressing room by all accounts, but someone who flirted with reporters about a possible move to Barcelona, was allegedly not happy about being played in a two-man midfield and has an agent who is infamous for stirring trouble.
Next. One of Jose Mourinho's signings at Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku, played his part on Sunday and Ali Akbar thinks he proved his game is about more than just goals!. dark
I respect Mourinho for his very respectful interview. He could have gone in hard on United or Woodward for not giving him the licence to spend in the summer. He could have been rather salty about their progress under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But no, instead he dropped little hints as to where his time at Manchester United faltered and perhaps has provided a sly hint that problems may still arise in the future.