Mourinho can’t resist a cheeky dig at his former club, can he?
Jose Mourinho can’t ever resist firing at least one shot against his former employers Manchester United, and in his latest press conference, he didn’t disappoint once again.
This time, Mourinho opted to take a dig at United for their recent fall from grace, claiming that managers employed by the club are ‘no longer expected to lift trophies.’
Mourinho was the last manager to win a trophy at Man United.
Mourinho was the last manager in charge of the Red Devils to win silverware – five years ago. But he was sacked in December 2018 following what was then the club’s worst start to a top-flight campaign since 1990.
Now working at Serie A side Roma, the Portuguese icon is preparing his team to face Feyenoord in the inaugural final of the UEFA Europa Conference League in Albania next week.
When asked by the press if both he and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti had been written off too quickly in their managerial tenures, the 59-year-old used the opportunity to take a sly dig at his former clubs, including United.
José Mourinho: "We won together three titles at #mufc, unfortunately the last three titles of Man United. I say unfortunately because I like the club very, very much and I wish the club the best." #mulive [sky]
— utdreport (@utdreport) May 11, 2022
“I believe that the problem with Carlo Ancelotti was that when you coach Everton you are not about to win the Champions League,” he said.
“And with me, you know, people they saw me taking up jobs where they thought that I could win trophies but they were not jobs where we were expected to lift trophies.
“‘But when you have such a winning career on a cyclical basis so to speak, you can expect that, people can say that. Personally I’m not worried about this [being replaced by younger coaches]. I do not think and focus on the generations, I focus on quality.”
Mourinho did reserve some praise for the Red Devils.
Despite his claim, he did reserve some small praise for United when discussing his relationship with Roma winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who also played under Mourinho at Old Trafford.
“We won together three titles at Man United, unfortunately, the last three titles of Man United,” he added.
“I say unfortunately because I like the club very, very much and I wish the club the best.
“We won three titles together so everything went well, in the second season was a little bit different.”
