Jose Mourinho is enjoying life in Italy now with his days as a Premier League manager behind him.
Spells at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur ended sourly despite winning a Europa League and Carabao Cup with the first of the two.
The Portuguese coach ended a long run of winning silverware at every club he managed until his most recent spell in North London.
Now, the 59-year-old is treating his current venture at AS Roma as a long-term project. They sit sixth in Serie A, fifteen points off league leaders Inter Milan.
Mourinho With The Candle Holder
It's almost a Cluedo-esque headline this. Jose Mourinho, in the Old Trafford lounge, with the candlestick (holder). In 2018, Man United hosted their Player of the Year awards.
The headline gong of the night was the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award. David de Gea earned his fourth; the most of any Man United player in history.
There were also some other notable prizes, such as the Players' Player of the Year which went to Luke Shaw. But Jose Mourinho wanted to present a 'special' award.
Andy Goldstein of talkSPORT was on duty for MUTV and recalled how Mourinho made a last-minute decision to give some shine to a young Scott McTominay.
"When I was doing the Man United Player of the Year awards for MUTV, and he was manager, we were doing the live show in a studio next to the awards," Goldstein said.
"You’ve got the bog-standard awards like the Matt Busby Award, Player of the Year but we got wind of the fact on the night that Jose wanted to make up his own award and give an award out."
"I don’t mean in the afternoon of the awards ceremony, I mean during the evening. The evening started at 8pm, and at about 9:30pm we got wind of the fact that Jose wanted to give out an award."
As the crowd was settled for an evening of prize-giving, Mourinho took to the stage to give a speech and present something to a player he thought deserved some credit.
And here is Jose presenting @McTominay10 with his surprise award! #MUFCPOTY pic.twitter.com/dbTXhvl9ne
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 1, 2018
"I think the dream of every boy that arrives at the club is to play for the first-team. And when the dream becomes true, the next dream is to play in big matches," Mourinho said.
"To play Champions League and eventually to play for the national team. This player did everything in five or six months. So my player of the year has to be Scott McTominay."
McTominay made the walk to the stage and Mourinho had his moment. It was a nice gesture if anything to heap some praise on an emerging talent at the club.
On the broadcasting front, David Goldstein and his team were a bit confused. While they appreciated the gesture, they couldn't help but notice what he was presented with.
"With an award, you need a trophy," Goldstein said. "So they ended up giving Scott McTominay a candlestick holder. It was long, silver, and had a little bend in it."
"That was all they could find. I don’t know if Scott McTominay knows he won a candlestick holder!" The Scottish international has gone on to be a regular for a Man United team fourth in the table this season.
Goldstein didn't seem to be much of a fan of Mourinho during his time at the club. Whether the two butted heads or just didn't get on, something didn't rub off right on the TV host.
"I was never a fan of the way he conducted himself," he said. "You have to call him a legend of the game and respect what he’s done though."
"I couldn’t handle that again, it was horrible. He was horrible to me, it was just Jose being Jose."
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