Everything Jose Mourinho has said about Liverpool rivalry, next job and selling Mohamed Salah

Jose Mourinho was spotted in attendance during Liverpool’s win over Fulham on Sunday as the Reds continued their Premier League title bid.

The Portuguese coach has been out of work since leaving Roma in January 2024, where he guided the Italian club to winning the inaugural Europa Conference League in 2022, as well as reaching last season’s Europa League final. Mourinho is searching for his next job and the odds of him replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool have dropped after watching the Reds at the weekend.

Since the announcement of Klopp’s impending departure, comments from Mourinho in 2019 suggesting that Xabi Alonso could become an elite coach have resurfaced. However, Mourinho will not be under consideration by the Reds due to his time as Manchester United boss and the rivalry he created with Liverpool during his two spells at Chelsea.

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Here’s a round-up of what the three-time Premier League winner has said about Liverpool in recent months.

Jose Mourinho’s next job

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mourinho acknowledged the fact that he was not in the running for the Liverpool job. He insisted that he has no plans to call time on his coaching career any time soon and outlined the type of club that he would want to take charge of in his next role.

“It is not like I am afraid of jobs [with clubs] not ‘made to win it’. When some [managers] have reached a certain level maybe they say, ‘I will only get jobs made to win it’. It is my job to try to make clubs into those ‘made to win it’, or to reach some objectives,” Mourinho said.

“The only thing I want is that the targets and the objectives have to be established by everyone in a fair way. I cannot go to a club where, because of my history, the objective is to win the title. No. The only thing I want is that it has to be fair.

“Do you think if I was at a big Premier League club and we were sixth, seventh, eighth, in the table, I still have a job? What I am saying is people [should] look at me the way they look at others.

“What is important for me is if the club has objectives and for me to be able to say I am ready to fight for these. I don’t want to say realistic, but [at least] semi-realistic. Because when I went to Roma nobody was dreaming about European Cup finals and we did it. It’s not possible I go to a club almost relegated and the objective is to win the Champions League. It’s good but it is not fair.”

Ending Liverpool’s title hopes

Liverpool and Chelsea built a new-found rivalry during Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, centred around their battles in the Champions League, duelling against Rafa Benitez’s team. The antagonism between the two sides was further fuelled by Chelsea’s attempts to lure Steven Gerrard to Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho held the same feelings towards Liverpool when he returned to Chelsea in 2013. The west London side helped thwart the Reds’ title bid that season as Demba Ba infamously took advantage of Steven Gerrard’s misfortune, in between Chelsea competing in a Champions League semi-final tie.

“For us, it was about reaching the Champions League final, but I couldn't go and play Liverpool with our Under 18s,” Mourinho recalled on Jon Obi Mikel’s The Obi One podcast. “It wouldn't have been fair to Man City for us to go there even with our second team, so we wanted to do things in the right way.

“We wanted to play on the Friday night or on Saturday at 12pm maximum. They didn't give us that, so when we went there, we went to destroy their party, and we went there like we were playing for the title, which we weren't, but we gave everything to try to win.

“Of course, I gave a bit of rest to one or two guys. I played young (Tomas) Kalas, who had a fantastic game against Luis Suarez. We were on the bus and the guys outside were selling shirts with "Liverpool Champions" on, and you can't allow that as Chelsea. You have to keep the marketing and merchandise in a box.

“We played a fantastic match. Of course, Stevie G slipped, and he was the last person who deserved that to happen, but that's part of football, and in reality, we played so well. I even felt sorry for Brendan [Rodgers] because I'm always supporting my friends, but on matchday, friends stay at home.”

No Mohamed Salah transfer regret

Before joining Liverpool, Mohamed Salah had a brief spell at Chelsea during Mourinho’s second reign, before joining Fiorentina on loan and eventually signing for Roma. Chelsea’s decisions to sell Salah and his former teammate Kevin De Bruyne have often been used to criticise Mourinho but the Portuguese coach disputes that it was his fault the pair left Stamford Bridge.

"They [Salah and De Bruyne] left because they wanted to leave. They left because they didn't want to wait,” Mourinho said.

“Their history proves that their option was good, because they did the career that they did, they reached a high standard, but sometimes kids do decisions like that because they cannot wait. They do decisions like that because they don't have the patience to be calm and wait for the right moment.

“When people tell me 'You let Salah go', I say exactly the opposite. I bought Salah. I was the one that told them 'buy that guy'. He was going from Basel to Liverpool and I made a fight, I made a war to make him come to Chelsea.

"Yes, then comes a part where to become a Chelsea player you need to perform or you have to wait. He didn't want to wait, he wanted to go on loan and Chelsea at a certain point decided to sell. He went to Fiorentina and then Roma, then Chelsea decided to sell. That was not me deciding to sell, I was saying let him go on loan if he feels that he needs to play every minute of every game."