{"id":852935,"date":"2026-08-10T12:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/852935\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:20:19","slug":"jose-mourinho-reveals-he-signed-contract-to-succeed-sir-alex-ferguson-at-man-utd-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/852935\/","title":{"rendered":"Jose Mourinho reveals he signed contract to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jose Mourinho has revealed he signed a contract to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager in 2013 only to tearfully renege on the deal and return to Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The football world was rocked when the Scottish great announced he was retiring having overseen a 13th Premier League title triumph win during a spell of unrivalled dominance at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

United have failed to return to the top of the English game since Ferguson stepped down, with successor David Moyes sacked after only 10 months in charge.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Moyes did not last long as Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s successor at Manchester United (Martin Rickett\/PA) <\/p>\n

Mourinho was later brought in, spending two and a half years in charge from 2016, but revealed in a new Netflix documentary about his life that he had agreed to come earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Jose<\/a>\"Ospreys<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI go to Chelsea in 2013 but in that period there is something nobody knows,\u201d the Portuguese said in \u2018Mourinho\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I can say because I don\u2019t hurt anyone with the truth, and I think the objective of this work that we are doing is to tell the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left Real Madrid, I signed with Manchester United to go to Manchester United after Sir Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mourinho continued: \u201cI was, of course, very flattered, because Manchester United has an incredible appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world, I have to say that Manchester United is very, very close.<\/p>\n

\"JoseJose Mourinho celebrates Real Madrid scoring against Ferguson\u2019s United (Martin Rickett\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cBut one thing is love for football, and another thing is love for a certain club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is more powerful than love for football and, fundamentally, after Real Madrid, I needed to feel that I\u2019m loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson was one of the footballing figures interviewed for the new documentary and admits he was under the illusion Mourinho was accepting the offer, only for the situation to change in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly evening he phoned me and he was crying,\u201d the United great said. \u201cAnd he says, \u2018Alex, I can\u2019t take it \u2013 I\u2019ve given my word to Chelsea, and I\u2019m not going to break my word\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason he gave to me I could understand, but I was disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mourinho had a strong bond with Chelsea after leading them to two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups during an unforgettable first spell.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese parked differences with owner Roman Abramovich to return to Stamford Bridge after leaving Real Madrid, winning another league crown and League Cup before being sacked in December 2015.<\/p>\n

\"MourinhoMourinho took in two spells as Chelsea boss (John Walton\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to lose the chance to be the coach to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson was dramatic, but I don\u2019t regret because it was a decision that I made with my heart,\u201d Mourinho, now back in charge of Real Madrid, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think it is nature that says something that when you do something for love, you are never doing anything wrong. I think it\u2019s nature. I did it for love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back with the feeling of, yes, I go home, but with big responsibility because what I did before is history, and you don\u2019t want to destroy your legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jose Mourinho has revealed he signed a contract to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,562,9330,3636,23384,91417,1316,574,564,25642,561,82,3585],"class_list":["post-852935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chelsea","tag-david-moyes","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-man-utd","tag-mourinho","tag-netflix","tag-premier-league","tag-real-madrid","tag-sir-alex-ferguson","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}