Former Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has opened up about his time at the club, admitting that he didn’t get the credit he deserved for his achievements at Old Trafford.
Mourinho was dismissed from his role in December 2018, little over two years on from succeeding Louis van Gaal in the Old Trafford hotseat.
But despite a League Cup triumph, Europa League victory and second-placed finish in the Premier League, the poor start to the third season of his tenure brought about an early change of management.
However, the Portuguese has defended his time in the red half of Manchester, claiming that his accomplishments at the club were underappreciated while he fell short of ending the club’s barren spell without a title.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “Manchester United was not an easy time. I always felt that to win the Europa League was fantastic and it didn’t look like it was, the way people approached it. To finish second was even more [fantastic] than that, so probably I was feeling like ‘I’m working well, I’m giving everything and I’m not getting what I think that I deserve’.”
While Mourinho feels Manchester United’s Europa League win in 2017 has gone understated, the prior additions of Paul Pogba (for a world-record fee) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who netted 28 times in his first year at United) may have left the team better equipped to deliver the trophy ahead of the likes of Celta Vigo and FC Rostov (who have not played in Europe since).
Then again, you can only beat what’s in front of you.
That said, their second-placed Premier League finish in the following year certainly seems to be no mean feat for the ex-United boss having seen the struggles the club have endured since the 2017/18 season as the club finished outside the top four last term – the fourth time in six seasons following Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure.
So while Mourinho stopped short of touching on the results that led to his eventual downfall, his prior accolades, at least in hindsight, perhaps deserved greater recognition.
