Mourinho sympathetic towards Moyes’ Manchester United failure

David Moyes’ Manchester United tenure will go down in history as a failure but current boss Jose Mourinho admits he has an element of sympathy for the now-Sunderland manager.

After 11 incredibly successful years at Everton, Moyes took the reins at United in 2013, following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

Yet the Scot struggled in his lone season at Old Trafford – sacked after just ten months in charge with the Red Devils seventh in the Premier League and only four games remaining.

That meant the side would miss out on a Champions League spot for the first time since 1995 and finish outside the top three for the first time in Premier League history.

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And although he can understand how tough the situation was for Moyes in following a club legend, Mourinho claims he isn’t bothered by the shadow of Ferguson now he is United boss.

“I don’t feel it as a burden,” said Mourinho. “I feel the great history of the club – it has only positive things and not negative things.

“If you have conditions to follow that successful history, then that’s a different story. One thing is Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and [Nicky] Butt, all these guys at 25 or 26 or 27 years old. Another thing is to have them at 30, 31 or 32.

“He [Moyes] didn’t have them, and obviously that plays a part, there are generations. In a certain period when probably David came, the situation was not so easy, it was not so easy to go in that winning direction.

“At the same time, and I think this is even more important, the Premier League was changing.”