Mourinho is officially free to manage again
Jose Mourinho was sacked by Manchester United in December after a frankly dismal start to the season (well, first half essentially) that saw the club languish an enormous 19 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.
No one was surprised by his sacking, and Mourinho himself had spent the final months of his job looking like a man who had checked out ages ago and was simply waiting for his employers to run out of patience.
Since they did just that things have improved immeasurably for the Red Devils, with interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer winning five games out of five (four in the league) and bringing a feel-good factor back to Old Trafford in the process.
Now that he is unemployed again, Mourinho has been repeatedly linked with a number of high-profile jobs. Interestingly for a man who operates on something of a scorched earth policy when things are going badly for him in a job, the Portuguese manager has been almost exclusively linked with clubs that he has already managed.
Thankfully for him, he can go wherever he wants, because it has emerged that he officially received his pay-off from Manchester United in the form of a £15 million compensation package, immediately upon his sacking.
The fee reflects the slightly-less-than two years Mourinho had remaining on his contract, an improved deal which had been agreed a year ago.
He has, reportedly, already rejected the opportunity to return to Benfica, the first club he managed. Real Madrid and Inter Milan, two other clubs at which he enjoyed success to different degrees, are also said to be interested in bringing him back.
Madrid are having a particularly bad time at the moment, with interim manager Santiago Solari struggling to illicit the same response that Zinedine Zidane did when he was promoted from youth coach to senior manager, and president Florentino Perez is said to be keen to install an authoritarian like Mourinho to return the discipline to a listless squad.
Inter too are said to be unconvinced by manager Luciano Spaletti who – despite sitting third in Serie A – led his side to a group stage elimination from the Champions League.
