Former Premier League boss Jose Mourinho, reflecting on his tenure at Manchester United, unveiled the challenges he faces in cleansing the club of its “bad eggs”. He addressed the deep-rooted problems that hindered his efforts to rebuild the team during his tumultuous third season.
Speaking with Rio Ferdinand on his podcast FIVE, the Portuguese tactician explained what went wrong during his final year with the Red Devils.
Mourinho was in charge of United for two and a half seasons from 2016 to 2018. He won the League Cup and the Europa League in his first year at Old Trafford and led the club to a second place finish in 2017-18.
However, the final season saw The Special One failing to maintain competitiveness and several fall-outs with players ultimately resulted in him leaving the club in December 2018.
Delving into the issues that ended his time at United, as reported by The Sun, Mourinho said:
"I always feel, everywhere, before you buy new furniture you need to clean the house. So I was more more about cleaning the house than buying new furniture and we didn't clean it the way I wanted."
"I wanted to clean from the second season and we couldn't for different reasons."
Mourinho further added that he had a clear vision of who to replace, though he also had to accept that despite his valiant efforts, it did not turn out as he anticipated.
"I cannot say that I was asking for A, B, C or D in the third season because it wasn't right. I just knew, because it was my third season, I knew clearly what I didn't want there. In terms of the individuals and in terms of the profiles I knew clearly what I didn't want, but it didn't happen, "he continued
"Sometimes in football you have to accept that. I accepted that and I tried my best."
"But I knew exactly the deep problems that we had there and in the third season the manifestation of those problems were more clear."
The United faithful are of the opinion that some of the high-profile players at Old Trafford whom Mourinho wanted to sell were Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez to name a few.
The 61-year-old, after ending his spell at Roma last month, is currently looking for a new job, with speculations at its peak that the three-time Premier League-winning manager is learning German with the possibility of taking over at Bayern Munich from Thomas Tuchel.