MOURINHO: EURO PRIZE OR SEASON OF FAILURE

JOSE MOURINHO accepts Manchester United’s campaign will be seen as a failure if they do not win the Europa League.

United take on Ajax in the final on May 24, with the prize of a Champions League place on offer as well as the Europa League trophy.

Mourinho admitted the success of his debut campaign at United hinges on whether they win in Stockholm to ensure they do not miss out on the Champions League for a second successive season.

Asked if the season will be viewed as a failure if United do not win the Europa League, Mourinho (above) said: “I think you have the right to say it, but I don’t feel like that.

“I don’t want the players to feel like that. I don’t think the board feels like that because we worked very hard.

“I probably worked, this season, harder than ever. When I analyse, I don’t think that way. But if I was in your chair, maybe.

“That’s fair, yeah. We won a League Cup, won a Community Shield.

“Until the injuries arrived, we fought for the Premier League top four. We had a fantastic record of 25 matches unbeaten. We did things in this club nobody did in the first season, like winning a trophy, like having the unbeaten record of Manchester United in the Premier League, like reaching a European final.

“Sometimes you go into big clubs in difficult moments and the work is harder than at a smaller club in a moment of positive explosion.

“It’s been a very hard season. There’s been some work that’s been invisible to you.

“I know what I had to do. But, again, I accept in your eyes football results make that decision.”

Mourinho has vowed to play a weakened team on the final day of the season at home to Crystal Palace, with the Europa League final three days later, even if Sam Allardyce’s side still need something from the game to stay up.

The United boss said he will also adopt that policy at Tottenham.

He added: “I have to give some minutes to everyone, because we have only 15 players.

“We’re not going to say that the matches aren’t important.

“But we do have one that is more important than others.”