Jose Mourinho reveals text message high-profile Manchester United figure sent him before Spurs clash

Matthew Gault

He also hit back at United’s critics.

Jose Mourinho has used his post-match press conference to reveal that he has the backing of the Manchester United hierarchy after guiding the club to their second FA cup final in three seasons.

United recovered from going a goal down to beat Tottenham 2-1, with Alexis Sanchez and Ander Herrera scoring for the Red Devils. However, even if United had lost, Mourinho says he has already secured the backing of the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, who sent the manager a text message ahead of the clash at Wembley.

“I had this morning one simple SMS (text message) from one of my bosses Ed Woodward,” Mourinho said.

“He was saying that ‘I believe we are going to win but if we don’t the season is a good season, a season where everyone is professional and everyone is bringing the club in the right direction’. That’s my feeling too.

“We can close the season in a final and that’s a good achievement. But we need to focus on our six points and we deserve to finish second and to do that behind a fantastic team (Manchester City) is a good achievement.”

Did the trick https://t.co/bPcF1xIC99

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 21, 2018

Mourinho feels that United were the better team on the day and deserved to book their place in the final, where they will meet the winner of Sunday’s semi-final between Chelsea and Southampton. Considering United’s cup run, Mourinho hopes it will force critics to take a step back.

“We deserve it. If we split the match into periods we were the best team for many of these periods. Even when they had the ball when we were winning we were totally in control,” Mourinho told BBC Sport.

“We lost control after the 1-0. At half-time we spoke – we came back late for the second half because we spoke a lot – and organised ourselves. When you play away from home the supporters were phenomenal.

“We should ask ourselves why there are too many critics on all of us? We can finish second with six more points. To do that with all the fantastic teams we play against will be an achievement for a club that couldn’t do it for a few years now.

“And it will be a fourth final in three years. So, maybe too much criticism.”