Revealed: How Manchester United snatched Jose Mourinho from PSG

How do you solve a problem like Manchester United?

You make the serial silverware winner who happens to be both available for employment and wants the most demanding job in football your manager.

It should have been that simple for Ed Woodward and the Glazer family some 15 months ago when the opportunity to appoint Jose Mourinho presented itself. Yet it wasn’t.

With Mourinho now established as the only Manchester United manager to have won a major trophy on his first season at the club, with that achieved at the very first attempt courtesy of Sunday’s hard-fought League Cup Final victory over Southampton, it seems bizarre to consider that United hesitated so long on actually contracting Mourinho they almost lost him to a direct rival. Yet that is the exactly position the club placed itself in.

In the six months between his ugly December dismissal by Chelsea and his late May announcement as Manchester United manager, Mourinho fielded offers from or approaches on behalf of Real Madrid, AS Roma, Inter Milan, Arsenal, Everton and the Chinese Super League.

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The club that came closest to securing his signature, however, was Paris Saint-Germain. PSG had attempted to hire the Portuguese on several previous occasions, the Qatar-owned club regarding him as the ideal individual to realise an ambition of winning the Champions League. Though PSG knew Mourinho’s preference was to take a new job in England, they sold themselves well.

The French champions’ squad – containing the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Angel Di Maria, Marco Verratti, Thiago Silva and Marquinhos – was stronger and better balanced than any in the Premier League with the arguable exception of Manchester City’s.

PSG had been to three consecutive Champions League quarter-finals, were en route to a fourth, and had obvious potential to go much further in the competition if furnished with an upgrade on their then-coach Laurent Blanc.

France would have been a new environment for Mourinho.

An escape from an English media that has become increasingly intrusive from its front pages, while regularly haranguing him for his style of play, his touchline behaviour and an alleged failure to promote youth from its back pages. He would no longer have to deal with the English Football Association, nor its referees.

Mourinho already spoke French well. And by using the Eurostar to commute from his central London residence to Paris, he could continue to spend a significant amount of time with his wife and two children, whose lives were based in the English capital and would not be able to move with him.

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While the job Mourinho wanted most was at Old Trafford, and though he was ready – against the advice of some around him – to make that job harder for himself by taking it on mid-season, United would not commit to hiring him. So negotiations began with PSG.

“Jose had one foot and a half in PSG”, a close friend told Yahoo Sport. “He almost went there.”

Mourinho’s representatives, who’d negotiated Di Maria’s high-profile transfer from United to Paris a few months previously had set to work establishing the terms of a contract.

According to a well-placed source, what prevented one from being formally agreed were the complications of France’s tax system.

At his previous clubs, Mourinho’s remuneration had been negotiated on an after-tax basis.

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At his previous clubs, Mourinho’s remuneration had been negotiated on an after-tax basis.

His representatives ask for a basic salary net of taxes (typically worth over £10million a year) with the club in question charged with covering the taxable element of the coach’s pay. The problem PSG faced was that meeting Mourinho’s net financial demands in France would cost over €30m a year gross.

That circle was never squared so Mourinho remained available for employment as Louis van Gaal stumbled on through his second season at Old Trafford. United had considered relieving the Dutchman of managerial duties when Mourinho became available, but backed away from the off-message PR involved in a second sacking inside two years.

Executive vice-chairman Woodward told Mourinho that he was the club’s first choice to replace Van Gaal, yet would not formally commit to doing so. Mourinho’s camp were working on the assumption that Van Gaal would be removed at the end of the 2015/16 campaign (with United already asking the Portuguese to advise on a summer transfer strategy), then Woodward came up with the suggestion that Mourinho agree a pre-contract to take over as manager in 2017 once the Dutch incumbent’s deal expired.

Further mixing the messages were United’s approaches to other coaches.

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The club’s board was split on Mourinho with several directors expressing serious reservations over appointing him, and wanting other options.

United went to Pep Guardiola to see if they could persuade him to join them instead of Manchester City.

They talked to Carlo Ancelotti – who has long held an ambition to manage at Old Trafford – but the Italian had already committed to succeeding Guardiola at Bayern Munich.

Mauricio Pochettino’s achievement in building a Tottenham Hotspur side capable of challenging for the Premier League title also caught the board’s attention.

Pochettino was sounded out about the position, but concluded that it was the wrong point in his career to take on a job of such magnitude.

Meanwhile, Van Gaal was repeatedly reassured that he had the backing of his board and would be retained for a third season; United’s thinking being that verbally backing the Dutchman increased their chances of Champions League qualification.

It was mid-May before a definitive assurance was given to Mourinho that the position would be his. United announced Van Gaal’s sacking on May 23 and Mourinho’s appointment four days later.

Less than 10 months into the job, he has a still only half-rebuilt squad playing the best football since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. There have been two trophy winning trips to Wembley with a third still possible in the FA Cup. United are in the last 16 of the Europa League, unbeaten in the Premier League since October.

Mourinho is justifying his agent’s pitch to United’s board that there was not another manager in world football better qualified to restoring the club’s status on the field of play.

They can thank the French tax system that they did not lose him to Paris Saint-Germain.