Jose Mourinho joked that he could still win a Premier League title with Manchester United – should rivals Manchester City face retrospective punishment for alleged financial breaches.
Mourinho, now in charge of Fenerbahce, faces his former club in the Europa League on Thursday night and was inevitably asked about his eventful two-and-a-half year spell in charge at Old Trafford during the pre-match press conference in Istanbul.
The Portuguese won the League Cup and Europa League in his first season with United and finished runner-up in the Premier League the year after, although 19 points behind Pep Guardiola’s 100-point champions.
Mourinho, who won three Premier League titles across two spells at Chelsea, would later claim that guiding United to second place in 2017-18 was “one of the best jobs of my career” because of “what was going on behind the scenes” after he was sacked midway through the following season.
And with City now facing a hearing into over 100 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, over a nine-year period that included Mourinho’s spell in charge of United, he could not resist a reference to the 2017-18 season.
City deny all charges and announced their “surprise” when they were referred to the independent commission last February.
But Mourinho said when reflecting on his time in Manchester: “We won Europa League, finished second in the Premier League.
“I think we still have a chance to win that league, because maybe they punish Man City.
“Maybe we win that league, then they have to pay me the bonus and give me the medal!”
Mourinho added that he wished United well and offered his support to under-pressure manager Erik ten Hag, who also won the League Cup in his first year in charge but has since endured a difficult run of results – finishing eighth last season.
“I want the best for them,” he added. “If things are not going amazing for them, it’s not something that makes me happy
“But at the same time I have no time, it doesn’t make sense for me to think about what happened and what didn’t happen.
“What happened for sure, is that they keep faith in the coach, they support the coach, he stays season after season. It means stability and trust. They’re giving conditions for him to keep his job.”
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