Paul Scholes has revealed Manchester United's appointment of Jose Mourinho "never sat right with him" due to his allegiances to Chelsea.
United had countless battles with the Portuguese manager at Stamford Bridge across two spells before taking the job at Old Trafford years later in 2016. Mourinho was there to deliver Man United's first Premier League title since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, but that didn't go according to plan.
The Red Devils are still waiting to get back in the winner's circle in the league and have gone through various managers since Mourinho's departure including Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskajer. Mourinho's appointment was widely regarded as a brilliant move given his success at Chelsea and Real Madrid.
But Scholes wasn't in that camp due to Mourinho's ties with the Blues. The former United midfielder also believes they didn't get the Mourinho at the peak of his powers he didn't have the same " fire in his belly."
He said on BT Sport: "Jose Mourinho had lost the fire in his belly when he came to Old Trafford, he wasn’t the same Mourinho as people knew him. I didn’t like it when it happened because he was our main rival for four or five years at Chelsea. It never sat right with me, I’m sure he tried his best and had problems off the field too. I just never felt it was the right stage. If he was coming from Porto to United, I think it would’ve been a different story."
Scholes did not hold back as United crashed out of the Champions League to Atletico Madrid. The pundit reckons Ralf Rangnick's men will not get back to the promised land until they appoint a top-class head coach.
He added: "People say we’ve had a bit of plan. I think there’s still more to come before we get to where we want to be. I keep saying it, but until we get a proper coach, a top-class, elite coach from another big football team that wins trophies, strikes fear into players.
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"How [Ralf Rangnick] was chosen to be manager of this club for six months, I don't know. Getting a proper coach for this team is a massive thing. There's some real talent in this squad. The very first thing this club needs to do to get anywhere near winning the league again is getting in a proper coach who works for this team.
"It comes from leadership. It comes from a coach demanding that from his players and gets that from his players. I don’t want to keep having a go at Ralf Rangnick, he seems really nice and comes across well in interviews, he’s very honest. But, how he was chosen to be manager of this club for six months until the end of the season, I’ll never know. The coach is a massive part of it."
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