As Jose Mourinho gets ready to face his old club Manchester United in the Europa League, Simon Stone looks back at his time in charge at Old Trafford.
Twenty minutes with Jose Mourinho in a packed room at Fenerbahce's training ground in Istanbul on Wednesday reminded everyone present of his magnetism.
But at the time of departure, Mourinho was nowhere to be seen. He had gone ahead, the travelling party were told. Upon arrival, security advised that Mourinho was in the dressing room and not in a good mood. But Mourinho was committed to a return to Chelsea, and United were setting out on a path that seemed to make sense, but ultimately didn't work out.
By the middle of Van Gaal's second season, attention was starting to turn to Mourinho and not even an FA Cup victory over Crystal PalaceUnited rolled out the red carpet to welcome Mourinho, booking space in the exclusive Claridge's hotel in London to conduct his welcome MUTV news conference. It was their first top-two finish of the post-Ferguson era. Mourinho subsequently called it one of the best managerial achievements of his career "because people didn't know what was going on behind the scenes".
Before a Manchester derby in Beijing, City manager Pep Guardiola gave a news conference in a small room at the Bird's Nest stadium.around the pitch. The game never took place. Overnight, torrential rain made the pitch unplayable and the match was called off. United flew straight home.Staff were left in no doubt things were done better at his previous clubs Chelsea and Real Madrid. In Jose's world, it was felt, you were either with him or against him.
It had all started with a botched transfer window, when the demands of club and manager did not appear aligned. Anthony Martial was a particular bone of contention. Mourinho wanted the France forward out - the pair had a disagreement during that pre-season when Martial did not return to Los Angeles after attending the birth of his first child.Bizarrely, Mourinho's relationship with MUTV was better before his arrival than it was after he became manager.
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