Mourinho has told Ratcliffe route to Man Utd success as return talk ramps up

Daily Mirror

13-05-2025

Jose Mourinho is being linked with a return to Manchester United, where he endured a mixed and frustrating stint as manager, as a new hierarchy consider his return
Jose Mourinho has previously claimed that the manager at Manchester United needs to be allowed to focus on coaching - not have to involve himself in other aspects of the club. The Special One is among those to try and fail at Old Trafford, but believes the structure was all wrong.
Mourinho led the Red Devils for just over two years, but ultimately couldn't make the club English champions once again despite being hired off the back of several title-winning exploits.
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His best effort was second, when he worked under the Glazers' hierarchy led by Ed Woodward. Things have changed massively since at Old Trafford with Sir Jim Ratcliffe now leading the club's football operations, but fortunes are yet to change.
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Prior to INEOS coming on board the likes of Mourinho and Louis van Gaal had failed to have the desired impact in Manchester and the Special One insists that too many coaches have been axed for it to be their fault instead pointing the blame elsewhere.
He previously told Fabrizio Romano: "Some of them were very good but none of them have been successful or survived for very long. You can't blame all the coaches. The only conclusion is that the environment in which they were working didn't work."
Ratcliffe has taken a hands on role with Omar Berrada coming in as CEO. Dan Ashworth has been hired and since fired as the club's sporting director. Jason Wilcox also has a senior role and Mourinho insists whoever is at the helm needs to be allowed to focus on the players and getting results.
He said: "I think the ideal scenario is when the club has a structure that allows the coach to be the coach on the pitch, in the training ground, in the dressing room. I was the coach at Inter, at Real Madrid, I was the coach in my first spell at Chelsea. I was the coach at Porto. In other clubs I was not just the coach and that is a very difficult environment to coach."
Mourinho finished sixth in his first season with the Manchester outfit, but did deliver the Carabao Cup and the Europa League. Following that he landed second spot, but then saw results nosedive in his third campaign.
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He is being linked with a sensational return to Manchester as the club weigh up whether Ruben Amorim is the right man to lead them forward. Mourinho has never been shy in laying down what he wants and appear to take a swipe at the amount of roles he's had to take on in some of his previous jobs.
"In some club structures, you have to be the coach, you have to be the technical director, you have to be the communication director," he said. "Then you have to be the image that defends the club, the players, that is something people realise but at the same time, it is something the coach doesn't like."