Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho reveals what life is REALLY like behind the scenes at Old Trafford – but only rides his bike when they win

The Portuguese boss has also said he hopes to stay at the club 'for many years' and spoke of his admiration for Sir Alex Ferguson

JOSE MOURINHO has given his most revealing interview yet about life at Old Trafford. The Special One gave Portuguese broadcasters SIC access to all areas.

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Jose Mourinho seems to be enjoying life at Old Trafford following a somewhat difficult start

Right in front of Jose Mourinho’s desk is an exercise bike, his little trick to throw visitors off balance.

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Whiteboards with team formations are on the walls, reference books on the shelves, flipcharts standing alone.

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Jose Mourinho has revealed all in an exclusive interview, here his is pictured with his son

And in the middle of the room is the bike, which can indicate the mood of the Special One.

Mourinho said: “The bike is just to fool people, it’s just here for decoration. I only pedal when I’m happy, when we win I pedal, when we don’t, I don’t pedal. Here I have a privileged view to all the pitches.”

Mourinho’s digs overlook the pitches at Carrington, while an adjacent room looking more like a conventional office is where his assistants meet. There are even Mourinho dolls hanging by their necks.

Welcome to Mourinho’s world, where he meets scout Ricardo Formosinho at 8.30am, trains with his players at 11am and can stay until 7pm with a double session.

This is one of Jose Mourinho's offices - where the lowdown is compiled on each of his players

Thankfully for Jose Mourinho, he manages to find some down time to have some food with friends

No stone is left unturned at United’s HQ, and that has meant changes since his arrival last summer.

Mourinho said: “We had a bit of work to do because there was no planning, we had to do the planning, we organized two pitches like Old Trafford, with exactly the same dimensions and same grass.

“The floodlights were also important, the pitches were not lit, at times we like to train in the afternoon and there are days where obviously at 3pm it’s nearly impossible.

“We’ve tried to improve, giving a personal touch and tried to modernize the working conditions.”

When work is done, Mourinho chooses between travelling back to his London home or staying to eat with his staff.

Jose Mourinho is a crowd favourite with the clubs he manages - but it's when he leaves that most drama is caused

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Things are looking rosier for Jose Mourinho as he aims to take Manchester United into the top four

He said: “London is very close to Manchester by train, with direct trains every hour. One hour, 45 minutes and I’m home.

“I try to be polite, I tell people ‘when we get there’ and people respect that.

“I do my journey relaxed, resting, reading or watching a game on an iPad, or working, responding to emails and when I get to London, I leave the train, wait for the people — half a dozen pictures and autographs and ‘bye, see you soon’.”

First-team coach Silvino Louro is the chef when Mourinho eats with his pal.
Louro, preparing cod, king prawns and chicken in garlic, does not need Mourinho’s help with the food.
He said: “Most know how to eat. Mourinho cuts the cheese, sets the table, gets his bread and his Coca-Cola as he knows where it is.

“We tell stories, watch the football when there’s a game on. It’s quality time spent and the group gets more united.”

Mourinho adds: “Here, because we are without our families, it makes us partners everyday, 24 hours a day.”

Their job when they get back to Carrington is to mastermind a way back to the top of the league. United “stopped”, according to Mourinho. He says even before Sir Alex Ferguson retired, they stopped when others grew thanks to TV money pouring in.

He said: “When I arrived in England in 2004, I wanted to buy Manchester City’s best player (Shaun Wright-Phillips) and I bought him; Manchester United wanted to buy Arsenal’s best player — Van Persie — and they did; they wanted to buy Tottenham’s best player — Michael Carrick — and they did and so on . . .

“Nowadays, all clubs have grown. With the TV rights shared in the way they are, it’s almost unique in European football and has allowed that difference in power to be slowly diluted, in a way that Manchester United stopped being the ‘all powerful United’, and became part of a group of five, six, seven very powerful clubs, followed by other clubs, less powerful, but not the poor clubs of the league.”

Mourinho revealed that Ferguson was “shy” around the first-team when invited back to spend time with the current squad.

Possibly to take some frustrations out from the football - there in exercise bike in Jose Mourinho's office

He said: “I told him, it made no sense, us travelling to London on a private train and Sir Alex going by car. I told him ‘No, you come on the train with us’.

“He’s so respectful that he was a bit shy in his approach. We have to make him feel cared for and make him realise — in our heads — there aren’t any ghosts.

“He’s an ambassador for this club and always will be, but he has been doing it as far as he can from the changing rooms.

“At the end of games when he, Sir Bobby Charlton and the CEO come down, he’s the only one that doesn’t come in the changing room. I told him this makes no sense, he needs to feel free to do what a person of his stature that represents the club can do.”

While there is no chance of Mourinho emulating Ferguson’s trophy-laden 26-year reign, the former Chelsea boss is in no rush to leave Manchester.

Jose Mourinho ha said he hopes to be at Old Trafford for 'many years' such is he enjoying life

Mourinho said: “If they want me to stay I will stay, but we both need to be happy.

“I’m not a type of person to be at a club ten, 15 years without real success.

“I have to have true success, my life is like that, I need that pride and happiness.

“In all honesty I would like things to go well and be here many years.”

And Mourinho revealed there could yet be another Special One coming through the managerial ranks.

Jose Mourinho Jr, a keeper with Fulham’s Academy, impressed dad with his analysis of matches earlier in the season.

Mourinho Sr said: “We were in a period of a few bad results and one day he came up with some analysis on my team.

“He was obviously suffering because dad wasn’t doing well — we had lost to Watford and Man City I think — and he came with the stats of the team, I showed them to my assistants and said ‘be careful as one day this boy will take one of your places’.”

(Culled from the Sun, UK)