Bygones for Special One: Jose Mourinho makes peace with Manchester United icon Sir Bobby Charlton on training ground visit
Portuguese makes peace with Charlton as Manchester United’s new manager visits the club’s Carrington training ground
Jose Mourinho made peace with Bobby Charlton as Manchester United’s new manager met the Old Trafford icon at the club’s Carrington training ground on Monday.
He pontificates too much for my liking. He’s a good manager, though
Charlton has previously been a harsh critic of Mourinho and was understood to have objected to his potential appointment when United were looking for a successor to Alex Ferguson in 2013.
The 78-year-old, a member of United’s board of directors, also criticised Mourinho in 2012 for poking Barcelona’s assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye during a heated touchline clash, saying at the time: “A United manager wouldn’t do that. Mourinho is a really good coach, but that’s as far as I would go really.
“He pontificates too much for my liking. He’s a good manager, though.”
But, despite Charlton’s criticism, United finally turned to Mourinho last week, hiring the former Chelsea manager after the failed regimes of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
With Mourinho being taken on a tour of United’s training base, it could have been an awkward moment when he met Charlton, but the 53-year-old Portuguese was keen to bury the hatchet.
