Jose Mourinho has never been one to withhold his true thoughts and was in customary form on TNT Sports for Saturday’s Champions League final.
The soon-to-be Fenerbahce coach was on punditry duty for the broadcasters as former club Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0. The ex-Manchester United boss was also outspoken during his tenure at Old Trafford, at one stage alluding to the internal structure of the club after his exit.
“We are not any more in a time when the coach by himself is powerful enough to cope,” he said in 2019. “The coach nowadays needs a structure, he needs a club organised in a certain way.
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“The club must have an owner or a president, a CEO or executive director, a football director and then the manager. This is the structure that can cope with all the problems modernity is bringing all of us.
“A club must be very well organised to cope with all these kinds of situations where the manager is only the manager and not the man that is trying to keep the discipline or is trying to educate the players.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has performed a revamp of the United boardroom shortly after his arrival as co-owner. Former CEO Richard Arnold and ex-director of football John Murtough have stepped down from their roles with other United hierarchy figures set to exit at the end of the campaign.
Omar Berreda will soon arrive from Manchester City as CEO while Jason Wilcox has been installed as the new technical director. Dan Ashworth is being hunted for the new sporting director role as United try to prise him out of Newcastle’s gardening leave.
Mourinho has worked under many club set-ups during his career and praised Madrid’s system following their Champions League trophy lift at Wembley. “The club is such a simple structure,” he said.
“The structure? Florentino Perez (president), Jose Angel Sanchez (CEO) and the chief scout – and the coach. Simplicity is genius.” Asked why other newer roles have cropped in recent years, Mourinho responded: “Because it’s trendy.”
United do have a similar structure to what Mourinho described, albeit with a slight difference. Of course, Ratcliffe is the head of sporting operations at United while Berrada is the new CEO.
How the dynamic between Ashworth and Wilcox will play out when it comes to transfers will be seen in time, but the former will likely take the lead. Ratcliffe has attempted to streamline the system with the best market quality and Mourinho will be fond of the near-simplicity he has instilled.