José Mourinho 'cried' after being overlooked for Manchester United job • Chelsea manager allegedly felt let down by Sir Alex Ferguson • Claim made in new book by Spanish journalist Diego Torres Share 1823 inShare5 Email Guardian staff theguardian.com, Thursday 26 September 2013 17.31 EDT José Mourinho is said to have felt 'betrayed' by Sir Alex Ferguson after missing out on the Manchester United job. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images José Mourinho is said to have broken down in tears at the news that David Moyes had been given the Manchester United job. The allegation is contained in a book by the respected Spanish journalist Diego Torres, who writes for El País. In the book, Prepare to Lose: the Mourinho Era, Torres says the appointment "provoked an earthquake" and that Mourinho felt let down by Sir Alex Ferguson, who had recommended Moyes to the United board. "Mourinho ... thought that Ferguson was, besides his ally, also his friend and godfather. He was convinced that they were tied by a relationship of genuine trust. He thought that his fabulous collection of titles constituted an 'endorsement' unreachable to any other contenders. When he knew that Ferguson had chosen Moyes, the Everton coach, he was struck by a terrible disbelief. Moyes hadn't won absolutely anything!" Torres said that Mourinho was on the phone constantly to his sports agency Gestifute. "Mourinho wouldn't stop calling them. His 'interlocutors' had heard him sob loudly and they were spreading the word. The most feared man in the company was crushed." The book, whose account has been denied by Mourinho's adviser, goes on to describe the Portuguese spending a sleepless night in a hotel in Madrid, "the most unfortunate hours of Mourinho's phase as Real Madrid coach. He endured them between dozing and waking, glued to his mobile phone in search of clarifications, on the night of the 7th and the morning of the 8th of May, tucked into the Sheraton Mirasierra hotel." Moyes's appointment was made official on 9 May. Mourinho, according to the book, was sure that Ferguson would call with an explanation but he heard nothing. He recalled reading comments from the United director Sir Bobby Charlton pouring scorn on the idea of him getting the job. "He was tormented by the memory of an interview of Sir Bobby Charlton in the Guardian in December. His judgments gave him a big uncertainty. 'A United coach wouldn't do what he did to Tito Vilanova', stated Charlton, evoking the finger in the eye, when asked if he saw Mourinho as a successor for Ferguson. In regards to the admiration that Ferguson professed towards him, the veteran footballer implied that it was a fable: 'He doesn't like him that much'. "In the morning he called Mendes so that he urgently got in touch with United. Until the end he wanted his agent to pressure the English club as an attempt to block any operation. It was an act of desperation. They both knew that Mendes had put Mourinho in the market a year earlier." The book says that "Mendes had already been told in the autumn of 2012 that Ferguson's first option was Pep Guardiola. He had been explained the reasons. In Gestifute, the message from a United executive rumbled like a drum: 'The problem is that when things don't work for Mou, he doesn't do club politics. He does José politics.'" Mourinho, the book says, "felt betrayed by Ferguson and feared that someone might stop taking him seriously. For years the propaganda machine acting at his services had divulged the idea of a friendship that now was revealed as a fantasy image. To give coherence to the facts in the public light, Gestifute's advisers recommended he should say that he already knew because Ferguson had called him to inform him. "On the 9th of May someone from Gestifute got in touch with Record newspaper to say that Ferguson offered his crown to Mourinho four months ago but that he refused it because his wife preferred to live in London, and that was why he ended up choosing Chelsea. At the same time Mourinho offered an interview to Sky in which he declared that Ferguson kept him in the loop about his decisions but that he never made him the offer because he knew perfectly well that he wanted to coach Chelsea. The contradictions were not planned." Mourinho went on to take up the offer of a second term at Chelsea from the owner, Roman Abramovich. When he took up the job in June he claimed to have known of Ferguson's plans to stand down but said he was always intent on returning to Stamford Bridge. "I knew that Ferguson was retiring many months ago," he said. "I would have turned down every job in the world – the Manchester United job, every one – for Chelsea." Mourinho's adviser Eladio Parames has denied the book's account. "This story does not have any sense," he is quoted by the Portuguese newspaper O Jogo. "It is completely false. It has no head or tail." Chelsea declined to comment.
Bullshit at its best. Mou's ambitious but I don't think he'd cry when he can't coach a certain club. He is too prideful to do that. Besides, it's the same person that wrote: The man hated Mourinho.
Because this is clearly a publicity stunt to promote a book written by someone who seems to target an anti-Mourinho audience.
they sure have hatred for us Portuguese http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/17/jose-mourinho-chelsea-english-players
The idea that the Portuguese have exceptional people (as any nation, I should add) seems to annoy some of our neighbours. We're supposed to be the nice and docile, not raising any waves, never challenging for anything. It may be just football, but we are slowly changing our image to being ruthless, efficient and willing to do anything to win. We're losing sympathy points, but I'll trade them so we stop being seen as some friendly simpletons that everybody likes and nobody respects. If only our government started to grow a similar attitude...
I should add that it's far from being all Spaniards who think that way or even a majority, but those that do think that exist unfortunately.
Nah if they really were that way I think the Portuguese would be a confined to wishing for independence in a soccer stadium filled with players who are "little dancing boys every father would love as a son", i.e. they would be like Catalonia.
Yeah, awesome game by Benfica, errr, Chelsea! Maybe it's just me, but I enjoy Mourinho so much more in England than Madrid.
Yeah he pulled all the right strings last week agaisnt PSG. Ba took his chance against Swansea well enough to get the 3 points in the PL, though the goalie should have done better. Setting up for a giant game vs Liverpool in two weeks....and a pesky Atletico side! One things for sure, it'll be fun to watch
What a shit game that was. Not sure if it'll pay off. I could see atletico scoring in London with no Cech
I like Torres! Wouldn't mind if he scored. Mou also said he wants to rest his players and play a B team against liverpool. probably a mind game, even though Chelsea's B team would still feature 11 internationals.
Jealousy is such a bitch. But then how can you relate to the man and his success. You've been a loser all your life.