Mourinho cut an extremely bitter figure as things continued to go against him towards the end of his Old Trafford tenure.
And the current mood in the Manchester United camp is now incredibly different under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose arrival has lifted the players and supporters to say the least.
The Norwegian helped mastermind one of United’s finest ever European nights in France on Wednesday when they beat Paris Saint-Germain.
With just minutes remaining VAR awarded the visitors a penalty and Marcus Rashford bravely stepped up from 12-yards to become the hero.
Former United boss Mourinho has had to sit back and watch his successor make the job look easy since he took over responsibilities in December.
But to the surprise of many, he dished out praise to his former players for their performance at the Parc des Princes.
He was asked by RT to pick his ‘Special One’ from the midweek Champions League action.
“In terms of players, I was immediately thinking about [Dusan] Tadic, because he was a key player in that amazing match,” Mourinho said.
“But I think independent of the performances, Ajax and Manchester United results are phenomenal results, and if the responsibility in the bad days is for the managers, the responsibility of the good days is then also for the managers.”
The Portuguese then handed personal praise to Ajax boss Erik ten Hag and Solskjaer.
“So for me, [Erik] ten Hag from Ajax and Solskjaer from Manchester United,” he added. “Incredible results, so credit to them.”
Real Madrid’s 4-1 defeat to Ajax has left Santiago Solari on the brink of losing his job after a disastrous week for the club.
Speculation has now ramped up in the last few days that Mourinho could be offered a sensational return to management with Real Madrid.
“Honestly I don’t know, speculations are speculations,” he said.
“I never hide it, I’m in a very calm situation. I’m not desperate to work at all, I’m studying, I’m doing things that I can’t do when I’m working.
“I’m on this side of the cameras, which is a good perspective for me too. I don’t know, probably I hope to be working in the summer. Working happily in the next pre-season, June, July.
“But there is nothing at all to say. I promise if one day there is anything to say, I will let you know.”
