Man Utd Boss Jose Mourinho Reveals He Had to 'Beg' Real Madrid to Leave for Chelsea in 2013

Jose Mourinho has claimed Real Madrid made life extremely difficult for him back in 2013 when he wanted to leave to become Chelsea manager.

The current Manchester United boss got his wish in the end and took the reigns at Stamford Bridge for the second time four years ago, but he had to work had to get away from the Bernabeu.

Mourinho had an indifferent stint with los Blancos - he won the league title in his second season but failed in the club's pursuit of Champions League glory; something they haven't been short of since his departure.

As quoted by the Daily Star, the Portuguese tactician said: "To be honest, with the club [Real]'s structure, they wanted me to stay, they didn't want me to leave.

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"Everybody in the club, president, CEO, the board, myself, we all felt after the years I was there that the difficult part of the job was done and they wanted me to stay.

"In fact, I almost had to beg to let them let me go. I don't think that at United is going to happen, because I don't want to go.

"I wanted to go and win the title in Spain, but it was not for me to stay. I was not in love with my life there. I wanted to come back to England and in that case, to Chelsea."

Mourinho is set to embark on his second season as United manager, and will be hoping to replicate the success of having won three trophies last term - the Red Devils may find that difficult to achieve though since they aren't competing in the Community Shield and are returning to the Champions League in 2017/18.