Chelsea: Mourinho reveals he never wanted to join Manchester United

Jose Mourinho claims that Sir Alex Ferguson had never broached the topic of him taking over at Manchester United, as he knew very well about the Portuguese manager's desire to move back to London with Chelsea. Mourinho was available when United appointed David Moyes at the helm at Old Trafford, and given the way the appointment panned out there was talk that Ferguson may have wanted Mourinho to take his legacy forward.

Mourinho, incidentally, returned to Chelsea in the same year after a six-year stint at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, finishing the season in third spot. However, he got back to winning ways in the next season by claiming his third Premier League title, having invested astutely in the likes of Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas.

On the other hand, Moyes was sacked midway through his first season, with United finishing seventh in the league and dropping out of a Champions League spot. Louis van Gaal took over a year later, helping the team finish fourth in the league and bringing them back to compete among the best in Europe.

In his latest book, Ferguson revealed that he had a list of prospective candidates he had considered for appointment with Mourinho's name also in consideration. "Every manager in the world looks at Man United as a huge club but I wanted to come to Chelsea and we didn't bring that to the table because we were so open and he knows so much about myself," Mourinho said, as quoted by the Guardian. "He knew that for almost a season I want to leave Real Madrid and I want to come to Chelsea."

Mourinho, in the meantime, has not started the season well, with his team languishing in the bottom half of the table with only eight points from a possible 24. The manager went on a bitter rant following his loss to Southampton, afterwhich he was given a public vote of confidence by the owner.