José Mourinho
Former Manchester United manager, José Mourinho, has bemoaned the level of support he was offered during his time at the club, saying that results could have been better had he been afforded the trust and support that Erik ten Hag has enjoyed.
Mourinho coached United from 2016 to 2018, winning a Europa League and Carabao Cup in that time, but was sacked with his team 11 points adrift of the Champions League places in December 2018. He told The Telegraph that his rapport with then chief executive Ed Woodward made achieving results more challenging.
“My relationship with [former chief executive] Ed Woodward was good. Good as in the personal point of view,” Mourinho said. “Even now we send an SMS. But from a professional point of view, it was not the best. I am who I am. I am a football man. Ed comes from a different background and what Ten Hag has in his time at Manchester United I didn’t have.
“I didn’t have that level of support. I didn’t have that level of trust. So I left sad, because I felt I was in the beginning of the process. In some moments, I felt if they trusted me and believed in my experience things could be different.”
Mourinho added that there are members of United’s squad now that he wanted to get rid of during his tenure owing to their lack of professionalism.
“There are still a couple of players still there I didn’t want five or six years ago,” he said. “I think they represent a little bit what I consider not the best professional profile to a club of a certain dimension. But I did my job there. Time always tells the truth. I would love Manchester United to succeed.”
Mourinho’s time at United was punctuated by fallouts with senior players, including Paul Pogba and Bastian Schweinsteiger, who said last week that the Portuguese manager exiled him from the dressing room without cause.