Mourinho was overruled on two Man Utd transfers, Woodward confirms

Ed Woodward has explained why he went against Jose Mourinho’s best wishes to sign two players while the Portuguese firebrand was manager of Manchester United.

The executive vice-chairman controls the purse strings at United and furnished Mourinho with millions of pounds during his reign, signing the likes of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Fred, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly for huge sums.

But there were occasions when Woodward was forced to say “no” to Mourinho, with the ex-United boss seemingly frustrated in his hunt for a new centre-half last summer, while efforts to bring in Ivan Perisic also stalled, much to his frustration.

Mourinho, who is now in charge at Tottenham, lost his job at United last December following a poor run of results and the apparent loss of support in the dressing room.

And Woodward admits that he had to tell Mourinho “no” on a couple of occasions.

“It is true that there was a difference of opinion on one or two players between the manager and the recruitment department,” Woodward told fanzine United We Stand.

“Sometimes I have to be one who delivers the ‘no’, which isn’t easy.

“Our natural tendency is to back the manager in every possible circumstance.

“But we have to listen to the recruitment experts too.”

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