The Jose Mourinho era at Manchester United was full of controversies. Fans remember how he used to go after journalists during press conferences.
Also, the Portuguese boss had fallen out with a number of players, which resulted in his departure.
Now, another player has opened up regarding the toxic relationship he shared with the former United boss during the player’s time at Old Trafford.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan joined Manchester United in 2016. The Armenian was the first signing of Jose Mourinho at United.
However, the winger had a very bad relationship with the current Benfica boss during his time at Old Trafford. Mkhitaryan recently launched his autobiography, My Life Always at the Center.
In this book, the current Inter Milan star gave an account of what happened behind the scenes with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. Mkhitaryan wrote (via The Sun):
“Mourinho told me I was ‘s***’ and I just lost my temper. ‘You are the s***. An enormous one.’
“Mou replied: ‘Get out of here, I never want to see you again.’
“During the training sessions, the coach said nothing to me, he remained at a religious level of silence, but every evening he’d send me a message via WhatsApp. ‘Miki, leave, please.’
“The situation had become grotesque. I’d reply every time with the same copy and paste response. I will leave if I find the right team, otherwise I’ll wait for the summer.
“Towards the middle of January, the text changed slightly. ‘Miki, please leave, that way I can get Alexis Sanchez.’
“Mino Raiola was working on this exchange with Arsenal. So my response mutated too. ‘I am not leaving just to do you a favour, and please stop writing to me. If you want, talk to Mino.’”
Mkhitaryan left Manchester United 18 months after joining the club, in a blockbuster swap deal that saw the Armenian join Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez moving to Old Trafford.
Jose Mourinho and Henrikh Mkhitaryan crossed paths again during the tenure of the Portuguese boss at Roma. The pair had settled their differences by then. He wrote in his book:
“The thing that makes me happy, in the beginning people go for a negative, and they were trying to say ‘Mkhitaryan with Jose has no chance, Jose is the kind of the guy that when things go wrong they never go well again’.
“It has been proven the opposite, we were very mature, very honest with each other.”
Jose Mourinho at that time said about ‘Mkhitaryan:
“I’m so happy with him and I’m happy with people understanding with me everything is not black and white.”
However, the Armenian once again left Mourinho frustrated when he joined Inter Milan for free the following year.
Since then, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has made 154 appearances for Inter, and he is a regular player for the Nerazzurri.
As for Mourinho, he was recently sacked by the Turkish club Fenerbahce after failing to qualify for the Champions League. He is now back in Portugal managing Benfica.
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