Mourinho suggests United were ‘not prepared to win’ before his arrival

Jose Mourinho has suggested Manchester United were not “prepared to win” before his appointment as manager in 2016.

The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss won the Carabao Cup and Europa League within a year of succeeding Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford, becoming the first United manager in history to lift a trophy in his debut season in charge.

United are second in the Premier League table with four games to play this term, having drastically improved on the form that saw them finish sixth in 2016-17, while last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Tottenham at Wembley sealed their place in the FA Cup final.

Mourinho is therefore confident his time at the club has been a success, claiming there was an acceptance before his arrival that they could not guarantee a challenge for honours, despite them having won the FA Cup in Van Gaal’s last match in charge.

“I knew the club I was coming to,” he told Sky Sports News. “I know that one thing is to go to a club that is prepared to win and you just need to arrive and give the last touches, to give your personal quality, personal knowledge and the team, and the club, is ready just for the last click.

“I knew that was not the case [at United]. The owners knew that. The CEO, he knew that. So, when the question was, in this period of my career, am I ready for this kind of job? Yes, I am ready because my career was about new things all the time.

“I was always very Portuguese in the sense that I’m always ready to discover and try new things, always ready to change country, to change club, to change culture, to change everything in the search of new things.

“I did all of that. So, when I came in this period to Manchester United, I was ready for this and I knew it was not to come and have simultaneous success.

“But, in spite of it, three trophies, three finals, probably a third or fourth [finish in the league] in worst-case scenario. Not bad.”