Sir Alex Ferguson's Book Sums Up Why Jose Mourinho Failed

Sir Alex Ferguson was a genius at pretty much everything when it came to management and the former Manchester United manager even condemned Jose Mourinho's time at Old Trafford, three years ago.

In 2013 Sir Alex Ferguson decided to call it a day, hang up his chewing gum and retire from life as Manchester United's manager. After over two decades in charge and 13 Premier League titles the Scot had become one of the best managers of all time.

Ever since 2013, when United won their last title, things have not gone well at all. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho have all struggled in the hot seat since.

The club have picked up a few trophies, with Van Gaal winning the FA Cup and Mourinho winning the EFL Cup and Europa League, but they've come nowhere near a league title.

The hangover from Fergie certainly continued in the Mourinho era and the shadow of good football hung over the former Chelsea boss throughout his tenure.

And it seems that Sir Alex even summed up what went wrong for Mourinho three years before it happened. Speaking about management in his 2015 book 'Leading,' Fergie wrote:

"There is a phrase in football about players 'not playing for the manager', which I have seen happen a thousand times.

"Once that happens, the manager is as good as dead, because he has failed in his major undertaking - which is to motivate the players to follow him."

Mourinho might not want to hear it but Fergie got things spot on. Image: PA Images

It's pretty fair to say that Mourinho seemed to have lost the dressing room as he had fallings out with Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Eric Bailly, Alexis Sanchez and others.

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Saturday the players suddenly looked freed from their previous feelings and Fergie's summation seemed even more spot on.

United players looked a lot happier at the weekend. Image: PA Images

When Mourinho left there were reports of Alexis Sanchez betting Marcos Rojo that Jose would be sacked, since rejected by Sanchez, and that Paul Pogba high fives players on hearing the news.

Whoever is next at Old Trafford could do a lot worse than read Fergie's book before taking the job.

Topics: Paul Pogba, Football News, Anthony Martial, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, English Football, Alexis Sanchez, Premier League, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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