“I would apologise maybe to some extent.”
Rio Ferdinand has said he would apologise to José Mourinho after the manager’s quote from 2019 about his achievements with Manchester United ‘aged so, so well’.
Speaking on beIN Sports about his tenure at Old Trafford three years ago, Mourinho explained that finishing second in the 2017/18 season was “one of the best jobs of my career” because of issues “behind the scenes” people didn’t know about.
At the time this comment was disregarded by fans and pundits alike, given the manager’s past achievements with Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid. And while United have managed one more second placed finish in the time since Mourinho left, the ongoing struggles at the club have only validated what he said.
Speaking on his Vibe with Five podcast, Ferdinand explained: “I think Jose Mourinho ’s quote has aged so, so well. And me for one, I would apologise maybe to some extent in terms of the way you kind of looked at him and judged him.
“I still think there were flaws in some of the ways he handled people and handled some of the situations that he was involved in. But in terms of looking behind the scenes, that [quote] he said in 2019 on finishing second in the Premier League, that has aged so well.
“We can see that there’s been stuff going on that’s wrong behind the scenes, but at that time we didn’t know the extent of it. Obviously Jose Mourinho did.
“He wanted to get rid of numerous players and he wanted to bring in certain players, and obviously big wages and contracts were handed out to certain players and he’s thinking, ‘Woah, woah, woah, what’s going on?!'”
United are expected to be very busy in the transfer market this summer, with incoming manager Erik Ten Hag seeking to overhaul the squad and its playing style.
