The ex-United (and Spurs) manager spoke to the press ahead of what is to be a very interesting game as Man Utd take on their former manager's current club Fenerbahce in Istanbul tomorrow night (20:00 BST kick off).
Mourinho is one known for mind games and mentioning that he feels that his two previous clubs are favorites for the tournament could perhaps heap extra pressure on them and take some of it off him and his club.
'The Special One' also says that he "wished all the best to Man United" and that he was very happy during his two-and-a-half year spell at Old Trafford mentioning his Europa League triumph and finishing second as accomplishments. He left with a good feeling towards the club and fans.
"What's important to me is they keep the faith in the coach because that gives stability." Mourinho feels that not chopping and changing managers is a good thing which can result in a more stable environment rather than one that's constantly being changed.
However, the Portuguese feels that backing Erik ten Hag and keeping the faith with him was different to what he had as despite his accomplishments, he was sacked not long into his third season.
The Fenerbahce boss also believes that his former side have been playing better than their results suggest. "But they have a better team than the results are showing."
Final Thoughts
I suppose he is correct in that United and Spurs should be the favorites but that doesn't mean that we will win it. I feel like this is classic Jose putting the pressure on his opponent and taking some of the heat off him.
I actually feel like Fenerbahce could be a candidate to win the Europa League because of the quality of some of their players and that they have him as manager. We all know that Jose is more than capable of winning a trophy wherever he's gone, except for Spurs. Not my words, his.
He's also always mentioning that second place in the PL in 2018 as if it was the Champions League or something.
It was something that used to annoy me but when looking at how we've been over the years, that was by far our best season in the league since Sir Alex's retirement and for him to do it with that group of players was remarkable.
I think we all have a better understanding now about why he speaks so highly of that campaign after so many years of having the same problems he mentioned 5-6 years ago.
Forgive me Jose. You were right.
And I think a lot of us fans do still have a bit of a soft spot for him. Whether he was the right man or not for the long-term, he still gave us some great memories one of which was winning this competition, our only ever triumph.
Talking about the stability is good because we have been very trigger happy when it comes to managerial changes over the last decade. United have changed managers on six occasions since 2013 with five of them being permanent. The other was Ralf Rangnick for 6 months.
This is what he means as if you do make regular changes, there won't be that stability. We're always having to start a new cycle.
Saying that this was different to what he had in that the club chose to let him go after two pretty good seasons, indicates that United in 2018, weren't willing to give things time and let the manager do his job. Jose has said previously that he wanted players gone when he arrived at the club in 2016 that are still here today. Not backing a manager in that way won't really bring that stability he needs to do his job as best he can.
It also shows that the club may not trust him as much which isn't a good thing either.
Erik ten Hag can't really complain about much as out of all the managers post Sir Alex, he's been backed the most although mitigating circumstances like injuries, off-field issues and a mid-season takeover would've played their parts in United being poor over the past year.
The new football structure at United is looking to give the manager the best tools to play good football and become successful whereas with Mourinho, it was nowhere near as great a structure.
If he were the manager under the new regime, it would've been very interesting to see what Jose could've done at United.
Are our performances and results not matching up?
I tend to agree with that because we have played well enough in games to get better results like Brighton and Palace but that is our own fault. We really should've won both games yet came away with just 1 point.
Those were because of not being clinical in front of goal. Should we rock up without our shooting boots tomorrow night, we may as well not turn up at all as we will get nothing from that game.
Background Image: Jose Mourinho | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal