OLD TRAFFORD

Mourinho wants to boss until he’s 70

JOSE MOURINHO insists he would love nothing more than to grow old as manager of Manchester United.

As the Portuguese prepares to welcome his old nemesis Arsene Wenger to Old Trafford for the last time as Arsenal boss, Mourinho has revealed he has the same kind of retirement plan as the 68-year-old Frenchman.

Mourinho’s longest spell in charge of a club is the 39 months he spent at Chelsea first time around – and he is backing himself to beat that at United, after signing a oneyear extension earlier this season.

But he thinks matching the numbers of Wenger’s 22-year reign is impossible given the media scrutiny modern managers are under.

Asked if he could manage until he is 70, the 55-yearold said: “For sure, for sure.

But I would have to change clubs, because I’m not allowed to stay here.

“I can’t do 22 years at one club because of this new concept of the media.

“The social media, the pundit industry, the way that people can express themselves and influence opinion.

“I think it is too much pressure – not just for the manager but also for the club. I think it is now impossible for someone to resist a long time, especially without any kind of success.

“To stay a manager, to have four or five years to try to get a trophy and to improve and change the team? I don’t think you are allowed that any more.

“Also, to be honest, at other clubs I had the feeling of thinking about what is coming next.

“I had other things I had to do. I had to go to

Italy, for sure. I had to go to Spain, for sure. Things I really wanted to do. At this moment, there isn’t anything I have around the corner waiting because I want to do something different.

“I really don’t want to do anything different to what I am doing now.”

Mourinho hailed himself as ‘The Special One’ after he won the Champions League for Porto aged 41 in 2004, and took over at Chelsea. He claimed successive Premier League titles at Stamford Bridge before moving to Italy to make Inter Milan champions of Europe.

And he then guided Real Madrid to the La Liga title before going back to Chelsea to win the Premier League again in 2015.

Mourinho believes he has got better with age. He said: “Up until the point you lose your motivation, you keep improving. Sometimes people say ‘Enough is enough, I don’t want more’, but until that I think it is the kind of job where experience makes you better.

“I am better in every way. From the motivational point of view, I am the same, nothing has changed.

“My passion for the job is the same, but my sense of responsibility and emotional control is better.

“Obviously I am much more mature at every level. In training, in matches, in relations with players. It feels like everything is deja vu.

“It is very unusual that there is something in my professional life I am surprised by or I don’t know how to react, as I’ve had it all before.

“So, yes, it is a job where the more experience you have, the better you are. You have the example now of Jupp Heynckes at Bayern Munich.

“He was retired, playing with his grandchildren, and suddenly he comes back to football and he is even better than before.”

Mourinho added: “Arsene isn’t dead so it is not the end. I don’t think he ends his career now. Until I have different information, he is only going to end his career as Arsenal manager.

“I am going to remember him as a big opponent, as the manager of the Invincibles.

“When I arrived in this country, Arsenal had the Invincibles and that made me a better coach. That is the way I would remember him.”