Jose Mourinho says he was 'accused of bullying' at Manchester United after half-time change

Jose Mourinho has claimed he was "accused of bullying" at former club Manchester United after substituting a player at half-time.

After replacing Louis van Gaal in the summer of 2016. the self-proclaimed 'Special One' lifted the Community Shield, League Cup and Europa League in his first season at Old Trafford.

He also said his achievement in guiding United to a runners-up spot in the Premier League was one of the best in his career because people didn't know what was going on behind the scenes.

Things, however, took a sour turn in his final season in Manchester.

After two-and-a-half years, Mourinho was sacked after starting the 2018/19 campaign with just seven wins in 17 Premier League games.

At the time, United were 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool, who would inflict another defeat on Mourinho's CV, just two days before his dismissal.

The Portuguese manager has since gone on to manage Tottenham Hotspur and Roma but the 60-year-old continues to speak about his eventful spell at Manchester United.

In fact, Mourinho brought up the club on numerous occasions when appearing on John Obi-Mikel's The Obi One Podcast on YouTube.

Here, he said he gave "everything he could" at United before speaking about an incident when he was "accused" of bullying.

"When I was at Man United, I changed a player at half time," he recalled. "I made a change and was accused of bullying."

Image credit: Getty

Mourinho did not name the player in question, but went on to reference his substitution of Nemanja Matic during a game against Southampton in 2015.

The former Chelsea manager, who insisted he was just "doing anything" he could to win the match, went on to speak about how the world has changed, in terms of both management and life.

"With Matic at Stamford Bridge, he was on the bench," Mourinho recalls. "I put him on minute 45, I take him off around minute 70. That's education, that's coaching. That's doing anything to win. I had to (make the) change.

"I laugh about these times but it's different times (now). Even to be a dad, you have to be a different dad to how your dad was to you. You have to change according to the world."

You can watch Mourinho talking about United in full below:

Mourinho also aimed a not-so-subtle dig at Ed Woodward by saying he would have loved to have worked alongside current CEO Richard Arnold.

"They still have a CEO who is an amazing person, who I would love to have had during my time there, that's Richard Arnold, who is probably now leaving," he added.

"I had him as a Commercial Director, not a CEO, and I would love to have had him on my side in my time there, but the club wasn't easy. I don't have regrets because I gave everything.

"The Man United fans know I gave everything, they know how much I love the club.

"I went there once with Sky, I was in the box giving my comments and the whole stadium turned to me applauding and singing for me."

Topics: Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Premier League, Chelsea

Jack Kenmare

Senior Journalist at SPORTbible with a passion for long-form journalism. Almost 10 years’ experience across online and print.

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