Jose breaks silence... and guess who’s in firing line!

JOSE MOURINHO broke his silence last night on his sacking at Manchester United and hinted that player power forced him out.

A clause in Mourinho’s £18million severance package from United meant that he was unusually guarded on his first public appearance as a pundit for beIN Sports.

But the 55-year-old said enough to suggest that fall-outs with a number of United stars, in particular Paul Pogba, were the catalyst for his departure after two and a half years in charge. Mourinho compared the situation with Sir Alex Ferguson’s handling of David Beckham, who was swiftly sold to Real Madrid in 2003 after crossing the legendary United boss, and claimed that he was not offered enough ‘protection’.

‘The phrase I kept with me from the biggest one in the Premier League — Sir Alex Ferguson — was “the day a player is more important than the club, goodbye”. Not any more,’ said Mourinho, who stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy as their relationship broke down in September. ‘I don’t like to say it’s a problem between the coach and the player. It’s a problem between the coach without the structure behind him and the player.

‘We are not in a time where the coach is powerful enough to cope and have a relationship of education, and sometimes confrontation, with players who are not the best professionals. The coaches need a structure.

‘A club must have an owner or a president, a CEO or an executive director, a sports director or a football director, and then the manager. This is a structure that can cope with all the problems that modernity is bringing to all of us.

‘So, for me, a club must be very well organised to cope with these kinds of situations, where the manager is only the manager and not the man who is trying to keep the discipline or who is trying to educate the players.’

Mourinho insisted he will stay in management. Asked about retirement, he replied: ‘No, I want to coach. I’ll be 56 in a couple of weeks. Really, too young. I belong to top-level football and it’s where I’m going to be.’

Meanwhile, Pogba has praised the work done by Mourinho’s replacement Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his role as caretaker boss. ‘The way we are playing, we have more possession,’ said Pogba, who has four goals and four assists under the new manager.

‘We know more where to attack and where to go. We have more of a pattern of play and more of a structure. That makes it easier for everyone.’