The self-proclaimed Special One finished second with United in the 2017-18 Premier League season, having won the Carabao Cup and Europa League in the previous campaign, but was dismissed a few months later with the side sitting in sixth place.
Since then, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick have all had spells in the dugout – with the latter overseeing United’s lowest points tally (58) in the Premier League era.
Speaking to beIN Sports in 2019, Mourinho said his second-place finish was ‘one of the best jobs of my career’ because of the issues ‘behind the scenes’ that people were unaware of, and that time would show what he meant.
Three years on and United have appointed yet another new manager – with Erik ten Hag the latest man tasked with revolutionising the club – while their latest underwhelming campaign prompted Rio Ferdinand to offer Mourinho an apology.
The Portuguese coach, who can end Roma’s 14-year wait for a trophy in Wednesday’s Europa Conference League final, insists he takes little pleasure in United’s continued struggles but feels he has been fully vindicated.
Asked if time has proven him right about United’s issues, Mourinho told BT Sport: ‘Unfortunately, yes.
‘Of course, my English connection is Chelsea – that’s the way I’m seeing it, as a Chelsea man, two periods at Chelsea, six years.
‘But at Man United the fans are special and there are lots of good people inside the club, so it’s not like I’m happy to be right.
‘I’m not happy to be right. I would like to be wrong. But I knew that I was right.
‘The first thing you have to change, for me, when things are not going right is mentality and organisation and it was not coming.
‘And I knew that for me to leave was not going to resolve the situation. I knew that, unfortunately. I wish them the best, honestly, and hopefully they make it.’
Earlier this month, Mourinho claimed United were a club where trophies are no longer expected and he appeared to double down on that remark when he reeled off a list of the clubs he has managed where there is enormous pressure to lift silverware – though did not include United.
He said: ‘When I go to Chelsea I go to win, when I go to Inter I go to win, when I go to Madrid I go to win. In here [Roma] the objective was to come, build, have time – and the word time is something quite new for me, because I was never given time. I had to arrive and win and if you don’t win you are out.’
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MORE : Rio Ferdinand tells Manchester United to sign relegated defender and addresses Jurrien Timber concern
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