Jose Mourinho’s reign as Manchester United manager is over
Despite an encouraging first season, in which he led the club to League Cup and Europa League glory, the (now ex-)United boss never looked like achieving his ambitions at Old Trafford.
United finished in sixth place in 2016/17,and were distant runners-up to Manchester City last season, trailing the champions by 19 points.
Mourinho’s spell in the dugout has been pockmarked by disagreements with players and wrangles with the board over new signings.
He never really managed to get his way – but he did have plenty to say during his two-and-a-half year reign.
Here are some of his best quotes…
Mourinho sent a message to the players from the start.
“I want to win. What the players need to do is listen. I want to focus on the history of this giant club. I will give everything to go in the direction we all want. The most important thing is the players and my relationship with them.”
But it wasn’t long until cracks started to appear, with Luke Shaw the first member of the squad to come under fire. This is what Mourinho had to say after Shaw’s display against Everton in April 2017.
“He had a good performance but it was his body with my brain. He was in front of me and I was making every decision for him. I was thinking for him, when to close inside, when to open, when to press the opponent, I was making every decision for him.”
After Shaw limped off against Swansea a few weeks later, Mourinho said of his team’s injury crisis:
“At the moment, we cannot walk from the bed to the toilet without breaking a leg.”
This was shortly before ‘the most important match in United’s history’ against Celta Vigo in the Europa League semi-final.
“For Celta, in their words, it’s the most important match in their history … my feelings are that it’s also the most important match of our history.”
United squeezed past Celta and defeated Ajax in the final to lift a famous ‘treble’…
Arch Mourinho. Directing team to raise three fingers, forcing newspapers to celebrate United's "treble" on their back pages pic.twitter.com/pFMJAoek7t
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) May 24, 2017
After Chelsea won the Premier League, Antonio Conte said he wanted his team to avoid a ‘Mourinho season’ in the next campaign – referring to the Blues’ struggles in 2015/16. Mourinho wasn’t impressed, taking a pop at the Italian over his previous hair problems in July 2017:
“I could answer in many different ways but I am not going to lose my hair to speak about Antonio’s comments.”
It wasn’t long before Mourinho was pulling his hair out, though, as United’s unbeaten run at the start of 2017/18 came to an abrupt end at newly-promoted Huddersfield Town.
“The best team won. It’s simple. I have to give them credit. They had a different attitude, motivation and desire than we had. Everyone at the stadium could feel in the first couple of minutes that one team was ready to give everything and the other was not ready for it.”
After Man City beat United at Old Trafford in December 2017 – with 65% possession and 14 shots compared to eight for the hosts – Mourinho claimed Pep Guardiola’s side would win the title thanks to luck.
“Manchester City are a very good team and they are protected by the luck … the gods of football are behind them.”
The gods of football were back in February 2018 – this time helping Newcastle claim a first home victory in four months at United’s expense.
“My verdict is we could’ve been here for 10 hours and not scored a goal. Newcastle played with their lives and defended with their lives. They got from us a defensive mistake and from a lateral free-kick they scored. The gods of football were clearly on their side.”
Mourinho referenced City again in a 12-minute monologue after United were knocked out of the Champions League by Sevilla in March 2018. Apparently Pep Guardiola’s side have more ‘football heritage’…
“In seven years with four different managers, (United’s record is:) once not qualify for Europe, twice out in the group phase and the best was the quarter-final – this is football heritage … In the last seven years the worst position of Manchester City was fourth. In the last seven years Manchester City was champions twice and if you want to say three times, and they were second twice. That’s heritage.”
Luke Shaw was back in his manager’s crosshairs later that month after a 2-0 FA Cup win over Brighton. The left-back was substituted at half-time and singled out again by his manager in the post-match press conference.
“Luke – I cannot say much more. It is a relation with personality. It is a relation to trust, it is a relation to class. I decided (to replace) Luke because at least Antonio (Valencia), defensively, was capable of some good positioning.”
United rounded off the season by losing the FA Cup final to Chelsea. However, it was a rare occasion when Mourinho was satisfied with his players’ performance.
“Every defeat hurts, but for me personally the ones that hurt less are when you give everything and you go without any regrets. I prefer to lose like today than lose like we did at, for example, Newcastle. I leave my players happy with them. For me, that’s really important.”
Mourinho set the tone for his strained relationship with Paul Pogba by damning the midfielder with faint praise following France’s World Cup triumph.
“I don’t think it’s about (Man United) getting the best out of him, it’s about him giving the best he has to give. I think the World Cup is the perfect habitat for a player like him to give their best. Why? Because it’s closed for a month, where he can only think about football.”
As United entered summer 2018, Mourinho was desperate to strengthen his squad in pursuit of the Premier League title. Taking a weakened side on tour to USA, he said after a 4-1 defeat to Liverpool in the International Champions Cup:
“The atmosphere was good, but if I was (a fan) I wouldn’t come. I wouldn’t spend my money to see these teams.”
The United boss sought to manage expectations on the eve of the current season by evaluating last year’s performance.
“I’ve won eight championships but I feel that finishing second last season was one of my best achievements in the game.”
And he was back on City’s case after the launch of Amazon Prime’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary, which portrayed Mourinho as adopting negative tactics.
“My reaction is if you are a rich club you can buy top players, you cannot buy class. That is my first reaction. The second reaction is because I am in the movie I could ask for some royalties. But if they send me one of the shirts they had in the tunnel when we played there (winning 3-2 in April 2018 to delay City’s title celebrations), the shirts that were saying ‘We did it on derby day’. If they send me one of these shirts, I give up about the royalties.”
As Mourinho came under mounting pressure with a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham at Old Trafford in August, he sought to defend himself by turning to philosophy;
“I am the manager of one of the greatest clubs in the world but I am also one of the greatest managers in the world. Did you read any philosopher? You spent time reading Hegel. Just as an example Hegel says: ‘The truth is in the whole.’”
But Hegel couldn’t help United against West Ham, with Mourinho blaming the officials for a 3-1 defeat.
“One goal is offside, the second goal is an own-goal and the third goal is the referee’s mistake but for the next game we have to have a better start.”
After a costly defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, Mourinho insisted that his team would still finish in the top six – but his fate was already decided.
“[Can we] win the title? Of course not. But we can still finish fourth,. It’s not easy but for sure we are going to finish in the top six.”
