Mourinho launches impassioned, 12 minute defence of his record

Mourinho's record has come under heavy scrutiny as Manchester United have stuttered to victories, and for many the Champions League exit against Sevilla was the final straw. In particular, the defensive style of play that Mourinho likes his teams to adpot has been criticised as outdated. 

The Portuguese manager has bitten back though, speaking for almost a quarter of an hour on his methods, his results, and the history of Manchester United. Reading various statistics, Mourinho made what will no doubt become a famous defence of his time at Manchester United. 

"There is something that I call football heritage," he said. "The last time Manchester United won the Champions League, which didn't happen a lot of times, was in 2008.

"Since reaching the final in 2011, in 2012, [United have gone] out in the group phase. The group was almost the same group we had this season, Benfica, Basel and Galati from Romania. Out in the group phase.

"In 2013, out at Old Trafford in the last 16, I was on the other bench. In 2014, out in the quarterfinal. In 2015, no European football. In 2016, comes back to European football, out in the group phase, goes to Europa League and on the second knockout, out of the Europa League.

"In 2017, play Europa League, win Europa League with me and goes back to Champions League.

"In 2018, win the group phase with 15 points out of a possible 18 and loses at home in the last 16. So in seven years with four different managers, once not qualify for Europe, twice out in the group phase and the best was the quarterfinal.

"This is football heritage and if you want to go to the Premier League, the last victory was '12-'13 and in the four consecutive seasons United finish seventh, fourth, fifth and sixth.

"So in the last four years the best was fourth. This is football heritage. It means that when you start the process you are here, you are there or you are there, is heritage.

"And if the fans that I will always respect, always respect, if the fans and many of them are the ones you speak with, many of them are the ones I speak with and I am very lucky but the ones who speak with you are very disappointed and the ones I speak with know what is football heritage, what is a process and when I arrive.

"When I arrived in Real Madrid, do you know how many players played in the quarterfinal of the Champions League? Xabi Alonso with Liverpool, Casillas with Real Madrid and Ronaldo with Manchester United. All the others not even a quarterfinal, that's football heritage."

This speech will no doubt draw comparisons with some other famous speeches made by managers in the Premier League, including Rafa Benitez's famous rant about facts or Kevin Keegan claiming he would 'love it'. 

Mourinho continued to back up his statistics: "I give you a couple more. In the last seven years the worst position of Manchester City in the Premier League was fourth. In the last seven years Manchester City were champions twice and if you want to say three times, they were second twice. That's heritage.

"Do you know what is also heritage? Is that [Nicolas] Otamendi, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, [David] Silva, [Raheem] Sterling, [Sergio] Aguero -- they are investments from the past, not from the last two years.

"Do you know how many of United players that left the club last season? See where they play, how they play, if they play.

"That's football heritage and one day when I leave, the next Manchester United manager will find here [Romelu] Lukaku, [Nemanja] Matic, of course [David] De Gea from many years ago.

"They will find players with a different mentality, quality, background, with a different status, know-how and for some reason you go to the Champions League quarterfinal like today and there are four clubs that are always there, always there.

"Barcelona is always there in the past seven, eight years. Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich and then of course appear now and again, another club like my Inter, like some other clubs like Monaco last season, but the ones that are always there is for some reason.

"The good thing for me and the amazing feeling for me is that I am exactly on the same page as the owners, as [executive vice-chairman Ed] Woodward and [group managing director Richard] Arnold, we are on exactly the same page, we agree on everything, on the investments, that we have what we have, the investments that we are going to do will be season after season, we are exactly on the same page.

"So life is good. I have an amazing job to do. I could be in another country with the league in the pocket, I am here and I am going to be here and no way am I going to change my mentality.

"I don't know if you know the expression but there is a quote that I like 'every wall is a door.'

"I am not going to run away or disappear or to cry because I heard a few boos, I'm not going to disappear from the tunnel, running immediately, the next match I will be the first to go out.

"I am not afraid of my responsibilities. When I was 20 I was nobody in football, I was somebody's son, with a lot of pride, and now at 55 I am what I am. I did what I did because of work and because of talent and my mentality.

"I understand that for many, many, many, years was really, really hard for the people who doesn't like me. Here he is again, here he wins again.

"For 10 months I win nothing. The last title that I won was 10 months ago. I beat Liverpool, Chelsea, I lose against Sevilla and now is their moment to be happy.

"I learn that in my religious formation, be happy with others' happiness, so be it, I am a really happy guy."