by Jose Mourinho has revealed that Manchester United still have the players and staff he warned the club more than seven years ago would never leave Old Trafford.
Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay are United’s only survivors from the first team squad Mourinho inherited at the club in May 2016.
United rejected Mourinho’s request to sell striker Martial in the summer of 2018 and the Portuguese has been a vocal critic of left-back Shaw during his two-and-a-half years in charge at Old Trafford.
Mourinho also questioned Rashford’s “character” and “personality” while at United despite being a fan of McTominay and handing the Scotland midfielder his first game for the club.
“There are still people in that club, and when I say people, I mean some players but also others who are not players, who are still there when I said. [United] after two months: with these people, you will never make it [be successful],” Mourinho told the Obi One John Obi Mikel podcast. “And they’re still there.”
What else Jose Mourinho said about United…
The Portuguese won the League Cup and Europa League in his first season at Old Trafford in 2016-17 but was sacked after two-and-a-half years in charge at United after becoming toxic.
Mourinho’s criticism echoes comments made by his now-departed successor, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who claimed that some United players believe they are better than they really are.
“Some of them weren’t as good as their own view of themselves,” Solskjaer told The Athletic in September. “I won’t name names, but I was very disappointed when a couple turned down the chance to be captain.”
Erik ten Hag faces many of the difficulties faced by Mourinho and Solskjaer, his two predecessors as permanent manager, as he tries to stop United’s season.
A tough 0-0 draw for Liverpool on Sunday eased some of the pressure after a tough campaign so far in which United have crashed out of the Champions League and lost 12 of their 25 games.
Mourinho – who claimed he was once accused of “bullying” after substituting an unnamed United player at half-time in a match – also appeared to take a swipe at former -the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward.
The former Chelsea and Spurs manager had a difficult relationship with Woodward and it seemed he would be better off working with Richard Arnold, who took over as chief executive following Woodward’s departure but has now left the club himself.
“They still have a great CEO, who I loved having during my time there, that’s Richard.
Arnold, who is probably leaving now,” said Mourinho.
“I had him as commercial director, not as CEO, and I would have loved to have had him by my side during my time there, but the club was not easy. I have no regrets because I gave everything.
“Man United fans know I gave everything, they know I love the club. I went there once with Sky, I was in the box giving my comments and the whole stadium turned to me clapping and singing.”
Mourinho on his time at Tottenham
Jose Mourinho has hit out at former club Tottenham for the “stupid” decision to sack him less than a week before the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City three seasons ago.
Tottenham sacked Mourinho after 17 months in charge just six days before the final in April 2021, which they lost 1-0.
Mourinho said the timing of Tottenham’s sacking was always the biggest of all the decisions he faced while employed at a Premier League club.
“The most ridiculous was a club with an empty trophy room in my bags two days before a final,” he said. “That’s the one that was… come on!
“Tottenham haven’t won in 50 years. I don’t remember when. I’m two days before the final and I couldn’t make the final. The one that does not smell good.
“I had a plan but sometimes it doesn’t work. But the reality is every time I went to Wembley with Chelsea I won. I went there with Man United three times, I won twice.
“So the record was good. It was a stadium and an atmosphere that I have good control over, because when you go into these big games you have to be comfortable, you can’t go to these games and feel that the stadium is too big.”
Mourinho, who chose not to acknowledge the club’s 2008 League Cup final triumph, does not argue that Tottenham would have beaten City if they had stuck with him but believes they could overcome Pep Guardiola’s side after they beaten 2-0 the previous November.
“I had the experience to help the team but the final was against Man City so I would be an idiot now to say we would have won.
“Just a few weeks [five months] before that, we won against them 2-0 at our stadium, so the feeling was positive. But it is what it is.”
Mourinho on his time at Chelsea
Mourinho says he did not want Kevin De Bruyne or Mohamed Salah to leave Stamford Bridge but that they were “just kids who couldn’t wait” for opportunities.
De Bruyne left Chelsea for Wolfsburg in 2014 and 18 months later joined Manchester City for £55 million and won five Premier League titles and the European Cup with the club. Salah joined Roma from Chelsea in 2016 after loan spells there and at Fiorentina before returning to England with Liverpool a year later and winning the Champions League and Premier League with the Merseyside club.
Both players have established themselves as two giants in the modern Premier League era but Mourinho has no regrets about the situations they left Chelsea.
“To be honest, they left because they wanted to leave,” he said. “They left because they didn’t want to stay. History proves that their choice was good because they had the careers and achieved a high standard, but sometimes kids make decisions like that because they can’t wait, or they don’t have the patience to be calm and wait. for the right moment. Sometimes their career goes in the wrong direction.”
Regarding Salah, Mourinho said: “When people say I let Salah go, I say exactly the opposite. I bought Salah. I was the one who said buy that guy. He was going from Basel to Liverpool, and I fought, I fought, to make him come to Chelsea.
“Then comes the part where, to be a Chelsea player, you have to do it, or you have to wait. He didn’t want to stay, he wanted to go on loan. And then Chelsea, at a certain point, decided to sell. He went to Fiorentina and Roma, and I was not deciding to sell. I was saying let him go on loan if he feels he has to play every minute of every game.”
Mourinho said he wanted to keep De Bruyne but the player was determined to leave.
“I told the club no, I don’t want to borrow him, I want to have him,” he said. “He stayed with me, and started the Premier League season playing in the starting XI.
“After that, we played the European Super Cup in Prague against Bayern and he didn’t play that game. Then, the next day, he wants to leave.
“We played the second final of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford and drew 0-0. He was on the bench and played a few minutes, but that wasn’t enough for him, so he wanted to leave.
“When you’re at Chelsea and you want to leave, you leave and another one comes. They were just kids who couldn’t wait, and their careers say they were right, but it wasn’t me. Other men will probably say I pushed them out, but not them.”
