After Roma fired him earlier this month, Mourinho is now unemployed and apparently trying to find a way to play football again.

According to the Daily Mail, 61-year-old Jose Mourinho is “keen” to lead Manchester United for a second stint, so it seems like the desire is coming from him. Given the conclusion of his first term, a friend of Mourinho’s expressed to the press that the manager has “unfinished business” with the club.

The ex-Chelsea manager allegedly has “made it his mission” to return to United management if the chance presents itself.

Getting there appears doubtful, at least in the near future. There is hope among fans that the Dutchman Erik ten Hag would be able to succeed since he is currently in the second season of a three-year contract with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS contingent taking charge of sporting activities.

Following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, United signed Mourinho in 2016 to replace Louis van Gaal as manager, and he took over soon after the club’s FA Cup victory.

In his first season at Old Trafford, United won the Carabao Cup and the Europa League, and they also signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba that summer.

After a poor sixth-place Premier League result (a regression under Van Gaal), United came out firing in 2017–18, finishing second behind Manchester City’s dominating performance. United have only managed to achieve 80 points once in the last 10 seasons, and that was under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2020/21. It was also the club’s best finish since the Ferguson era.

Jose Mourinho: Ranked in every managerial position he has held

Finally, during the first half of the subsequent season, Mourinho’s reign was suԀԀenly terminated. The United management failed to expand on the success of 2017/18 by signing just Fred, an unknown Diogo Dalot, and backup goalkeeper Lee Grant during pre-season in 2018. His demeanor during the season reflected the internal turmoil at the inability to land key transfer targets among other personnel difficulties.

He was supposedly on the verge of ιnjury just before United’s October match against Newcastle, a 3-2 comeback victory from a 2-0 deficit. However, the decision was made to let them go a little over two months later after a 3-1 loss to Liverpool at Anfield ended a streak of just one win in six league games.