Jose Mourinho 'cried' when he wasn’t considered for the Manchester United post earlier this year, a new book has claimed.
In Prepare to Lose: the Mourinho Era, respected El Pais journalist Diego Torres claims Mourinho saw Sir Alex Ferguson as a friend and “felt betrayed” by the Scot when he was overlooked in the English champions’ search for a new manager.
“When he knew that Ferguson had chosen Moyes, the Everton coach, he was struck by a terrible disbelief. Moyes hadn't won absolutely anything,” wrote Torres.
The book accounts Mourinho’s actions in the days leading up to David Moyes’ appointment when the Portuguese boss was supposedly “glued to his mobile phone in search of clarifications”.
Upon learning of the news, Mourinho called his sports agency Gestifute, and broke dowen in tears. "Mourinho wouldn't stop calling them. His 'interlocutors' had heard him sob loudly and they were spreading the word. The most feared man in the company was crushed."
The claims, which have been denied by the Chelsea manager’s adviser, tell of Mourinho’s anguish when Sir Bobby Charlton hinted to his eye-gouging incident as a reason never to employ the 50-year-old.
Speaking to the Guardian last year, Charlton said: “A United coach wouldn't do what he did to Tito Vilanova.”
Mourinho instead returned to Chelsea for a second stint at Stamford Bridge and insisted his head could not have been turned by any club once Roman Ambramovic had sought his services.
"I knew that Ferguson was retiring many months ago," he said. "I would have turned down every job in the world – the Manchester United job, every one – for Chelsea."
Mourinho’s adviser, Eladio Parames, took to the Portuguese press to categorically deny the allegations.
"This story does not have any sense," he is quoted in O Jogo.
"It is completely false. It has no head or tail."
