Former Manchester United and Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho has expressed his willingness to coach any team languishing at the bottom of the English league table, provided he is available in two years.
In an interview with Sky Sports following his team’s draw with Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday night, Mourinho stated, “The best thing I have to do is when I leave Fenerbahce, I go to a club that doesn’t play in the UEFA competition. So, if any club in England from the bottom of the table needs a coach in two years, I’m ready to go.”
The Portuguese coach, who received a red card during Thursday’s match, voiced his frustration with the officiating. He sarcastically commended the referee’s judgment after a heated dispute, saying, “He told us something incredible. He told me that at the same time he could see the action in the box and my behavior on the touchline.
I congratulate him because he is absolutely incredible, his peripheral vision. During the game, 100 mph, he had one eye on the penalty situation and one eye on the bench and my behavior. So that’s the explanation he gave me. That’s why he’s one of the best referees in the world.”
Mourinho previously received a four-game European ban for verbally abusing a referee during Roma’s Europa League final loss to Sevilla in May 2023. He referenced that incident as a reason for not appealing his recent red card: “If I appeal, I will get six months. Since the Sevilla-Roma final, there is nothing to do.”
In Thursday’s match, Manchester United took the lead with a 15th-minute goal from Christian Eriksen, but Youssef En-Nesyri equalized in the 49th minute, heading in unmarked from a cross by Allan Saint-Maximin.
The draw leaves Fenerbahce unbeaten with five points from three games, but Mourinho believed his side deserved more. “It would be fair to say that we did an extraordinary match and we were better than them, so a good result for Man United. My boys played an amazing match.
We played against a team that is at a superior level to us. We finished the game with a center-back playing at right-back and a right-back at left-back. We had to do a crazy puzzle, but our performance was extraordinary, and I couldn’t ask for anything more from the players,” he remarked.
Mourinho, who led Manchester United to win the Europa League in 2017 during his tenure at Old Trafford, took over at Fenerbahce this past offseason.
