In fairness, he's probably not wrong. Paul Scholes believes that Jose Mourinho was intentionally trying to get himself sacked by Manchester United during the final few months of his reign.
The Portuguese boss cut a frustrated figure during most of his last season at Old Trafford, continually picking fights with the media and members of his own squad. It seemed hardly a week passed without another Mourinho scrap, and his departure seemed inevitable right from the outset of the campaign.
Indeed he seemed aware of that fact and did little to attempt to appease either the United fans or members of the board. At times he seemed like he was just waiting for the sack, a sentiment echoed by former United midfielder Paul Scholes.
He told Norwegian TV station TV2 (h/t Daily Mail):
I felt he (Mourinho) didn't want to be there. He engineered his move away perfectly in the end.
His press conferences were embarrassing, so negative, it was obvious in the end the players didn't want to play for him. The right thing happened in the end.
He fell out with Antonio Valencia who is the nicest man in the world. It’s impossible to fall out with Antonio Valencia. That was a big sign for me that something wasn’t quite right.
Pogba and Mourinho in training this morning. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/aZKY56oE9n
— ThePuntersPage.com (@ThePuntersPage) September 26, 2018
It does seem hard to argue against the Englishman here. The incentive for Mourinho was of course the massive £22.5million severance package he received, not a bad sum to be given for wildly underperforming in your role.
Scholes was very critical of Mourinho at times during his two and a half seasons in charge, bemoaning the team's style of play and the demeanour of the manager himself. This intensified during the final few weeks of the ex-Chelsea manager's time at the club, but the BT pundit insists he was just being honest:
I was just being honest about the questions put to me and what I was seeing from the manager.
He started complaining very early on in pre-season, saying the kids weren’t good enough, which I didn’t like from the start
The mood at Old Trafford has certainly improved since his departure. One would also imagine that Mourinho is not all that upset with how the end of his time in Manchester played out.
