Skip to content
Jose Mourinho pictured at Queen's Club last week. Steven Paston

'Eighth or ninth is not for me' - Mourinho rejects Newcastle links

The Portuguese has no interest in succeeding Rafael Benitez at an English club for the second time.

JOSE MOURINHO HAS given a clear indication that the vacant manager’s position at Newcastle United doesn’t appeal to him, saying that taking charge of a club where the objective is to stay in the top half of the table not in his nature.

The Magpies are searching for a new manager following the failure to agree a deal with Rafael Benitez, whose three-year spell at the club is set to end when his contract expires on Sunday.

Mourinho has been without a job in football since he left Manchester United in December 2018 and was linked with the vacancy at St. James’ Park.

He succeeded Benitez at Chelsea in 2013, but history looks unlikely to repeat itself this summer.

But in an interview with The Coaches’ Voice he gave a clear description of the kind of job he does not want to take on.

“The only thing I know is what I don’t want,” said Mourinho.

“What I don’t want is crystal clear. I am quite pathological in the sense that I have to play to win. Then, if I win or if I don’t win, that’s my problem and the players and the club and the structure. But I need a project where the feeling is I play to win.

“If someone gives me a wonderful, amazing 10-year contract and says the objective of the team is to stay in the first part of the table, and if you finish seventh or eighth or ninth it’s perfect, that’s not for me. That’s not my nature.

“It’s not me. My next is to fight to win.”

Mourinho was linked with Juventus before the Italian champions appointed Maurizio Sarri as their new head coach, and the former Inter and Porto boss said he is open to working in a new setting when he takes his next job.

He offered a reminder of his unparalleled success as a manager in Europe’s top leagues, while hinting that a role in charge of a national team is not out of the question.

“I’m quite flexible to adapt,” said Mourinho. “I’m quite flexible to sometimes go against my own ideas and choose the right way to succeed.

“I am until now the only manager that won the league in England, Italy and Spain. You need that flexibility, that control of the environment. You need to adapt to the reality of the club, of the competition, even socially you need to understand the needs, the aims, the motivations of everyone.

“That’s why I say that I’m really rich with this kind of experience – that’s why I don’t close the door to a new country, to a new competition because I’ve always liked this feeling of the unknown and this feeling: can I win?”

Author
View 15 comments
Close
15 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin O'Connor
    Favourite Gavin O'Connor
    Report
    Dec 29th 2012, 3:15 PM

    Five bookings for simulation since the end of last season says it all really. Although I think he was a bit unlucky, but he did go down a bit easy as they say. Funny that Suarez gets talked about as the biggest diver in the league while this fella is about, but than again he doesn’t fit the description does he “our lads dont dive”

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alan Murphy
    Favourite Alan Murphy
    Report
    Dec 29th 2012, 6:56 PM

    Blame Suarez.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute colm connolly
    Favourite colm connolly
    Report
    Dec 29th 2012, 6:48 PM

    There was contact but bale could have avoided it, bale moved his leg in to meet the defender

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph McGranaghan
    Favourite Joseph McGranaghan
    Report
    Dec 29th 2012, 11:56 PM

    knee hit his knee, CLEAR PENALTY!!! If we keep persecuting our talented players in favour of the cloggers we’ll soon be back to the 80′s and the fun times of the ‘crazy gang’!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute colm connolly
    Favourite colm connolly
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 1:49 AM

    Ya it was knee on knee but bale made the contact happen he was looking for the peno which in my book is conning the ref

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph McGranaghan
    Favourite Joseph McGranaghan
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 7:27 AM

    Not buying it, the Sunderland players knee hit the back of Bales’s knee, I can’t see how that’s possibly looking for it, if we carry on like this with him he will soon be on his way to Spain and that’s one less player you’d actually pay to see in the Premier League.

    2
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute colm connolly
    Favourite colm connolly
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 12:31 PM

    It’s not the movement of the Sunderland players but look at the way bale turns his leg into the defenders leg to try win the penalty it’s something michael Owen was very good at and he won plenty of penaltys from it, anyway bale won’t leave England even if he leaves spurs he gets very homesick that’s why it took so long for him to settle at spurs and when he joined Southampton youths he was let home at every opportunity

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr. Common Sense
    Favourite Mr. Common Sense
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 2:06 AM

    It is a contact sport. He should not have gone down. Deserves his card.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan whelan
    Favourite Declan whelan
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 3:04 AM

    It used to be a contact sport

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph McGranaghan
    Favourite Joseph McGranaghan
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 7:29 AM

    You can make contact within reason if you win the ball, if you don’t that was always a foul!

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Buston
    Favourite Kevin Buston
    Report
    Dec 30th 2012, 9:32 PM

    Its supposed to be a mans game. There was contact but he went down way too easily. Def a booking. SIMPLE

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a comment

 
cancel reply