Mourinho opens up on turning down ‘three or four’ jobs

Jose Mourinho says he wants to be back in club management by the summer and that he has turned down ‘three or four’ offers already. The former Manchester United boss is preparing for a return to management after two and half months out of the game.

The Portuguese, sacked by Manchester United in December, has been out of work since. But the former Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter and Porto boss is preparing himself for a new challenge.

He says he is waiting for a role of right ‘dimension’ but, despite being tipped to manage Portugal at some point, ruled out a national team post.

Mourinho, 56, said, “What I have in mind is that I would like to be back in the summer, in June, for a new club, for a new pre-season. I know exactly what I don’t want – that’s the reason I’ve had to say no already to three or four different offers.

“And I know what I want in terms of, not a specific club, but the nature of the job, the dimension of the job. I know what I want and I’m going to be waiting for that.” Mourinho says he has been using the time since his departure from Old Trafford to be ready for his next position.

And he says his desire to be involved in the busy day-to-day challenge of club management is the reason he won’t be taking a job coaching a national team. “A national team job is a very specific job – I like daily football, daily work, I like many competitons, I like many matches and I want to stay at football club level,” he added.

“When you are working every day in football with six press conferences per week, with three matches per week, with pre-match analysed, with post-match analysed, with all the problems you have day by day, sometimes you have no time to take care of yourself and now I’m having this month where I think I’m going to be back even better prepared.

“At this moment I am two and half months without work and I am ‘working’ preparing myself for the next one. It’s not like I am on holiday, it’s not like I am bored – I am preparing myself for the next one.”

Wherever he is in charge next, Mourinho, who has won 19 major trophies as a manager, is sure he will be a success. “Somewhere, I am going to win again,” he said.