Jose Mourinho: Manchester United job has come at the perfect moment in my career

Jose Mourinho claims the opportunity to manage Manchester United has arrived at the perfect moment in his career. The Premier League-winning boss was sacked by Chelsea in December, but having spent more than a decade at the top of European football, Mourinho is confident he is the right man to restore United to its former glories.

The Old Trafford club has spiralled into decline since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013, sacking David Moyes and Louis van Gaal in the intervening years. But Mourinho has told United's players and fans to forget about the last three years, and focus on the future.

"I feel great. I think it comes in the right moment of my career because Man United is one of these clubs where you need really to be prepared for it because it is what I call a giant club," Mourinho told United's in-house TV station MUTV. "And giant clubs must be for the best managers and I think I am ready for it, so I could say I am happy, I am proud, I am honoured."

Mourinho added he was eager to draw a line under the last three years for United. "I think we can look at our club now in two perspectives. One perspective is the last three years and another perspective is the club history," he said after signing a three-year contract, with an option to extend it.

"I think I prefer to forget the past three years, I prefer to focus on the giant club I have in my hands now and I think what the fans are expecting me to say is that I want to win. I think the players need to listen - I want to win."

Meanwhile, Mourinho also claimed there has always been an "empathy" between himself and the United fans, admitting it created problems for him during the final days of his spell in charge of Real Madrid. "It's curious that I played so many times against Manchester United with other clubs and there was empathy," he declared.

"I was pushed by that feeling to say sometimes things my clubs were not happy with. For example when I won with Real Madrid I said the best team had lost. Not many people were happy with that."