Jose Mourinho: I Nearly Took The England Job In 2007

I can’t quite figure out why this story is even happening, but Jose Mourinho has hit back at the FA after they denied his claim that he had been offered the England job only to get cold feet hours before accepting. Following the FA’s claim that the Portuguese coach was never their first choice as successor to Steve McClaren in 2007, and that Fabio Capello was the man they wanted all along, a spokesperson for the Mourinho was quoted in the Daily Star disagreeing rather loudly with that interpretation of events:

If the FA weren’t pursuing Mourinho, they weren’t doing their jobs properly, so I think it’s probably safe to say that he was wanted to fill the then-vacant England position. However, I’m totally baffled as to why the Special One has chosen to pick a fight with Capello and the FA right now - it’s obviously annoyed both parties and Mourinho doesn’t just do these things by accident. What a very odd chain of events.