Football news - Jose Mourinho hopes ‘sad man’ Alexis Sanchez returns to form at Inter
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Updated 13/09/2019 at 10:40 GMT
Jose Mourinho says he always felt Alexis Sanchez was “sad” while at Manchester United, adding that he questioned his own managerial abilities as a result, while also hoping the forward can rediscover his form at Inter.
Sanchez was not always a starter under Jose Mourinho
Image credit: Getty Images
Sanchez joined United in January 2018 while Mourinho was still at the helm at Old Trafford.
Mourinho was then sacked in December last year, while Sanchez continued to struggle at the club before completing a season-long loan move to Inter.
And Mourinho, who has not returned to the dugout since the United role, admits he questioned his own ability when failing to get the best out of the Chilean.
Mourinho told The Telegraph: “Sanchez… I felt him [to be] not a happy man. And I think in every job you have when you are not happy it is not so easy to perform at every level.
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Alexis Sanchez of FC Internazionale poses for a photo on August 28, 2019 in Milan, Italy
Image credit: Getty Images
“And maybe I am wrong. Maybe it was me who was not capable to get into him and to get the best out of him. As a manager sometimes you have the capacity to get the best out of the players and other times you are not successful in that approach.
“But the reality is that I always felt [of Sanchez], ‘a sad man’. So probably in Italy he will recover this. I hope he can. I always wish well to every player.”
Mourinho, who twice managed Chelsea as well as Inter and Real Madrid, conceded his next role will be a “difficult on” given his history of choosing “bad” projects.
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Manchester United's Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho (L) and Manchester United's Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez
Image credit: Getty Images
“For sure my next job will be a difficult one because I am very bad at choosing projects,” he added.
I am either bad at choosing projects or the bad projects choose me. But it is always the same. When I go to Madrid, it is because Madrid are in trouble. When I go to United it is because United are in trouble.
"When I go to Chelsea the first time it is because they haven’t won the league in 50 years. When I go the second time it is because their top team disappeared and they want to be champions with a new team. When I go to Inter it is because they haven’t won the Champions League for 50 years.
“I have never had one of these clubs where it is, ‘Come on, the team is here ready’. But that is the nature of things. When the teams change coaches in the middle of the season it is for a reason. It is because of bad results.”
As Mourinho waits for an opportunity to present itself, he has taken to punditry both on Sky Sports and BeIN Sports, and he admitted it has given him a new perspective on the game.
“The one thing which I really feel is that the pundits try to be professional,” he said. “Not just on their preparation but on their analysis.
Sometimes as a manager, you can feel about a pundit, ‘This guy has an agenda. This guy wants to attack me. This guy wants to protect the other one’. I don’t think they don’t feel that [instinct]. I think they are professional in every aspect. But what I felt when I was a pundit, they also feel.
“Saying, for example, that I felt Frank should be a little bit more pragmatic in his approach [against Manchester United]. It hurts me. It is difficult to separate the professionalism of their [punditry] work with the human feeling that they have.
“I cannot blame some guy being pro-Liverpool if it is in his blood. I cannot criticise a guy being a little anti-Jose if he is not in love with Jose. You cannot separate the pundit from the man.”
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