Jose Mourinho has disclosed his picks for the teams poised to clinch victory in both the Premier League and Champions League this season.
Additionally, he expressed a strong inclination towards one of his former teams to secure honors in this campaign.
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The Portuguese tactician, currently without a managerial position following his departure from Roma in January, once again faced the familiar challenge of the third-season syndrome that has characterized his career.
During an appearance on Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube channel, Mourinho entertained viewers with discussions regarding his immediate plans, his endeavors to revamp the Manchester United dressing room, and his preferred midfielder from England’s esteemed generation.
Regarding the Premier League title race, Mourinho briefly deliberated between Manchester City and Liverpool before ultimately favoring Pep Guardiola’s squad, citing his confidence in his former rival’s team.
‘Champions League, I would say City or Real Madrid,’ the Football.com global ambassador said. ‘If somebody outside [those two] wins it, for me, it would be a great surprise.
‘I would love Real Madrid to win it again for the club and for Carlo [Ancelotti]. I don’t know, Bayern Munich can do it, Paris Saint-Germain.
‘Looking at potential, I think City/Liverpool for the Premier [League], City/Real for the Champions [League].’
To be fair to Mourinho, none of his three former Premier League clubs are currently in contention in the competition, and they seem to be far from the title race in England’s top flight as well.
His conversation with Ferdinand and Stephen Howson covered a wide array of topics and evoked emotions at times.
Mourinho acknowledged that his departure from Roma, despite clinching the Europa Conference League and reaching a Europa League final, was the one that deeply affected him.
‘I gave everything, I gave my heart, I gave even some options that could be considered not very clever from the professional point of view,’ he said.
‘I refused some great working opportunities. The first one was very hard to refuse because it was Portugal national team, probably the best Portugal national team ever and three years before a World Cup.
‘Then I had a big one from Saudi and I didn’t hide it at the time because it was really big.
‘I did it – normally I am very pragmatic in my choices, very professional in my choices and I try to be very emotionally controlled and you could see that when I left other clubs after winning finals.
‘In this case I was not pragmatic, I was emotional and I gave everything. So in the end when I left, I left hurt. I had the great feeling that I gave so much happiness to the people.
‘Two European finals in a row doesn’t happen too often, especially in a club like Roma which doesn’t have a big history of European success.
‘Then I was walking in the street and the people were like “take us to Dublin, take us to Dublin” [for this year’s Europa League final] and so I had that in my mind, the third European final in a row.
‘But you have to respect, the owner is always the owner. It’s not the first time I left a club, it is probably the first time I am feeling it in a different way.
‘You move on, you try to learn from the experience be better for the next one.’
