Where are they now? The 11 signings Jose Mourinho made as Man Utd boss
Jose Mourinho spent two and a half years at Manchester United and signed 11 players during that time – but what kind of legacy did they leave at Old Trafford?
The Portuguese boss spent over £350million on new signings and his overall tenure was a bit of a mixed bag. He did manage to get his hands on three trophies, although things quickly turned sour in his third season.
We’ve gone back and checked up on the 11 signings that Mourinho made during his time at United and have checked up on what they are up to these days.
Paul Pogba
The Red Devils spent a record fee of £89.3million to re-sign Pogba in 2016, just four years after he had left Old Trafford to join Juventus on a free transfer.
His return to the Premier League was a mixed spell as he and Mourinho often clashed with their conflicting personalities. After racking up over 200 appearances for the club, Pogba departed for Juventus once again in 2022 where he still plays to this day.
However, Pogba’s return to Turin hasn’t gone well. He spent the vast majority of his debut season on the sidelines and was hit with a four-year ban for an alleged doping offence, although that has since been reduced and he will be free to return to football in early 2025.
Romelu Lukaku
The Belgian forward has scored goals wherever he has played. Despite not being at his prolific best while at Old Trafford, he still managed to score 42 goals in 96 appearances for United which isn’t too shabby.
Lukaku appears to be happiest in Italy, particularly playing under former managers. After reuniting with Mourinho on loan at Roma, he’s now signed for Napoli to reunite with Antonio Conte and has started like a house on fire, rolling back the years to when they were together at Inter.
READ: Ranking Jose Mourinho’s most loyal soldiers: Lukaku, Mata, Essien…
Fred
The Brazilian midfielder never played his best football under Mourinho, but thankfully Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag managed to get more of a tune out of him.
Fred called it quits on his United career in the summer and secured a move to Fenerbahce – where he’s been reunited with Mourinho.
Not only that, he’s scoring hat-tricks for Jose. We live in a simulation.
Nemanja Matic
Another one of Mourinho’s loyal decibels. The Portuguese boss managed Matic at Chelsea, United and he recently had him at Roma too. The physical Serbian midfielder was the perfect Mourinho-type player and it’s no wonder they took such a shine to each other.
Matic spent just one season with Mourinho at Roma before moving on to Rennes in the summer. By January, however, he’d been shipped to Lyon after a dismal stint with Les Rouge et Noirs.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Mkhitaryan never quite lived up to the billing in the Premier League, but United fans will always have fond memories of that scorpion kick he scored against Fulham.
Like several other players Mourinho managed at United, he also got the chance to work with Mkhitaryan at Roma where he was much more productive.
These days you can catch him playing for Inter Milan as he continues to produce the goods in Italy. Given his technical skills, we still think the 34-year-old has a few years at the top level left in him yet.
Eric Bailly
Had it not been for injuries, who knows how good Bailly could have gone on to become for United. After barely kicking a ball in his final few years at United, he made the move to Besiktas in the summer of 2023.
Despite feeling like the most textbook Turkish Super Lig signing imaginable, it didn’t work out for the Ivorian at Besiktas and by December, his contract had been terminated.
He returned to Villarreal immediately after that, where he remains today.
Victor Lindelof
The Swedish defender is one of the only players that Mourinho signed who is still playing at United to this day. Under Ten Hag, Lindelof has been in and out of the starting XI, but nowadays finds himself way down the pecking order.
Mourinho and Lindelof haven’t always seen eye-to-eye as the former United boss took the opportunity to aim a subtle dig at the defender while on punditry duty for Sky Sports in 2019.
“Lindelof is very, very good in some aspects of the game,” Mourinho said. “But he can be bullied in the one-on-one in the box, he’s not especially good in the air and Maguire has that kind of presence and physicality that is very, very important.”
Diogo Dalot
The Portuguese full-back is the only other Mourinho signing who is still at the club. Mourinho signed Dalot back in 2018 for a reported fee of £19million.
Just when you think the full-back is impressing consistently at the top level and seems to have kicked on, he’ll bring you back down to earth with some really poor defending.
Still, time is on his side and he’s highly thought of at United for the most part.
READ NEXT: 8 players Jose Mourinho failed to get the best out of: Salah, De Bruyne…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Jose Mourinho’s 35 most-used players throughout his career?
Alexis Sanchez
It’s a shame United fans never got to see the best of Sanchez as the former Arsenal star looked like a shadow of his former self while playing at Old Trafford.
He only lasted a year and a half at the Theatre of Dreams and thankfully he’s looked more like his usual self recently. He enjoyed a prolific season with Marseille and – after a brief return to Inter – has returned to Udinese. We love to see it.
Lee Grant
Mourinho signed the experienced Grant as a backup goalkeeper in 2018 for a reported fee of £1.5million. He went on to make just two appearances for the club before announcing his retirement in 2022.
The 40-year-old has since gone into coaching and now works at Premier League newboys Ipswich Town alongside former United coach Kieran McKenna.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Football doesn’t quite feel the same without Zlatan. United fans will treasure the memories from the 2016–17 season which saw Ibrahimovic score 28 goals across all competitions under Mourinho.
After enjoying a remarkable career which spanned four different decades, he finally decided to hang up his boots in 2023. They simply don’t make them like Ibrahimovic anymore.