Manchester United blocked Jose Mourinho’s emergency return to Porto

Manchester United blocked Jose Mourinho from returning to former club Porto, prior to him taking over the reins at Old Trafford. This is according to Porto president Pinto da Costa (h/t Metro).

Mourinho joined Manchester United in the summer of 2016, spending close to three years at the club. But prior to arriving at Old Trafford, the Portuguese was offered a chance to join former club Porto in January 2016 (h/t Metro).

At the time, Porto were without a manager after Julen Lopetegui had left. And they approached Mourinho, who had led them to great success in the past. The Portuguese had also agreed to return, but United pulled the plug on the reunion (h/t Metro).

“It seemed impossible. But not for him, he said yes. There was a cup final at the time, a league cup final and he said he was coming. And when we were thinking it was possible, Manchester United did not authorise it.”

The reason that our club blocked the move was that we could end up facing Porto in a European competition before the end of the season, Da Costa added (h/t Metro).

Mourinho’s spell at our club began in fine fashion. We won the Community Shield, the League Cup and the Europa League in his first season.

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But things went downhill from then on, with players falling out with the manager. Eventually, Mourinho was sacked in December 2018, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer taking over the reins. Jose is now the manager of our PL rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Having won two league titles and the Champions League with Porto, we can only speculate if he’d be able to enjoy similar success had United allowed him to return.