The Sports Guru
Manchester United's post-Ferguson years are usually told as a story about David Moyes and a banner that promised too much. This article explains why that framing misses a decision made hours earlier, and what it says about the difference between a job someone wants and a club someone loves. Read on to understand how a phone call reshaped a decade of United history before a ball was kicked.
David Moyes wore the "Chosen One" label for less than a year at Manchester United, and the club's decline in the years that followed has usually been traced back to Sir Alex Ferguson's judgement in picking him. Jose Mourinho's account, given in a new Netflix documentary released on 11 August, complicates that story. United's job was, briefly, agreed to someone else entirely - and then handed back within hours.
A Deal Undone Before the Ink Dried
Mourinho says the arrangement was close to done, recalling that "When I left Real Madrid, I signed to go to Manchester United after Sir Alex." Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles at Old Trafford, confirmed the offer was made and said he believed at the time that Mourinho had accepted it, only for the situation to change within hours.
That is the detail that reframes the succession: not a manager Ferguson failed to secure, but one who said yes and then unsaid it before the day was out.
The Word He Wouldn't Break
What changed, according to both men, was Chelsea. Mourinho had already committed to a return to Stamford Bridge, where he had won back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006, and he felt he could not go back on it. Ferguson recalled a late-night phone call in which an emotional Mourinho told him he had given his word to Chelsea and would not break it. Ferguson said he could understand the reasoning but was "disappointed".
Mourinho's own explanation leans on something closer to sentiment than strategy. He called the United offer flattering, saying the club "has an incredible appeal", but drew a distinction between loving football itself and loving a particular club - a feeling he suggested mattered more to him after leaving Real Madrid, when he needed to feel wanted. He does not dispute what he gave up, describing the missed chance to succeed Ferguson as painful but a decision made "with my heart".
What United Got Instead
With Mourinho gone, Ferguson recommended Moyes, then Everton's manager, and the club obliged - hence the Stretford End banner and the nickname that would eventually read as premature. Moyes was sacked after ten months in charge. Mourinho, back at Chelsea, won his third Premier League title along with the League Cup, a contrast that would have looked stark to anyone comparing the two paths from the outside.
The Loyalty That Wasn't Returned
There is an irony sitting underneath Mourinho's account that the documentary itself supplies. He frames the 2013 decision as a matter of honouring his word to Chelsea and to Roman Abramovich's club. Abramovich sacked him twice regardless - in 2007 and again in 2015. Mourinho's own description of their relationship after the first dismissal is unsentimental. Returning to Stamford Bridge with Inter Milan in 2010 and winning 1-0 on the night, he said: "I was playing against a guy that sacked me. I go home happy and he goes home upset." The loyalty he chose over United, in other words, was not one that protected him from the same fate twice over.
United Got Him Anyway - Just Not When It Mattered
Mourinho did eventually take the Old Trafford job, three years later than Ferguson intended, succeeding Louis van Gaal in 2016. Over a two-and-a-half-year spell he won the League Cup and the Europa League before being sacked in December 2018 after results turned. Ferguson was gone from the touchline by then, and the manager United got was not the one who had briefly agreed to replace him in 2013 - the intervening years at Chelsea, and the acrimony that eventually followed at Real Madrid, had already reshaped him.
Mourinho has since returned to Real Madrid, appointed in June this year for a second spell after a first exit that ended in dressing-room fallout with then-captain Iker Casillas. It is a separate story, but it sits alongside the United account as part of the same pattern: decisions framed as loyalty or love that rarely settle as neatly as the man making them suggests at the time.
Why This Version Matters
The "Chosen One" narrative has always placed the weight of United's post-Ferguson decline on the choice that was made. Mourinho's account shifts some of that weight onto the choice that almost wasn't - a job agreed, then declined within hours, for reasons its author still describes as matters of the heart rather than the head. United fans re-reading the Moyes era now have to hold two things at once: a manager who was never really the club's first idea, and a different manager who talked himself out of it before anyone at Old Trafford had time to prepare a banner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, according to both Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson. Mourinho says he signed to take the job after leaving Real Madrid, and Ferguson says he believed the deal was accepted before it changed within hours.
Mourinho says he had already given his word to Chelsea and could not break it, describing the decision as one he made with his heart rather than for the appeal of the club.
Moyes was appointed on Ferguson's recommendation and labelled United's "Chosen One", but was sacked after just ten months in charge.
Yes. He was appointed in 2016, succeeding Louis van Gaal, and won the League Cup and Europa League before being sacked in December 2018.
He returned to Real Madrid for a second spell, with his appointment confirmed in June 2026.
Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: BBC Sport's original report.