Rio Ferdinand has admitted he was wrong about Jose Mourinho's comments back in 2019 as the former defender reflected on Manchester United 's current decline.
It was confirmed the Red Devils would finish with their lowest-ever Premier League points total following a demoralising 4-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. United can now only finish on 61 points if they beat Crystal Palace on the final day - three fewer than their previous lowest in 2013/14.
Mourinho received plenty of criticism during his time in charge, and after leaving the club he claimed his second-place finish was the best achievement of his career to date despite winning the Champions League and Premier League on multiple occasions. Speaking after his dismissal, the 59-year-old told beIN Sports in 2019 it was "one of the best jobs of my career" because of issues "behind the scenes" that people were not aware of.
Those comments have been brought up on social media in recent days after United suffered another defeat. Ferdinand was someone who also slammed the Portuguese manager for how he spoke on the club, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replacing the now-Roma boss at the time.
Speaking on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube show, Ferdinand said: "I think Jose Mourinho ’s quote has aged so, so well. And me for one, I would apologise maybe to some extent in terms of the way you kind of looked at him and judged him.
"I still think there were flaws in some of the ways he handled people and handled some of the situations that he was involved in. But in terms of looking behind the scenes, that [quote] he said in 2019 on finishing second in the Premier League, that has aged so well.
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"We can see that there’s been stuff going on that’s wrong behind the scenes, but at that time we didn’t know the extent of it. Obviously Jose Mourinho did.
"He wanted to get rid of numerous players and he wanted to bring in certain players, and obviously big wages and contracts were handed out to certain players and he’s thinking, 'Woah, woah, woah, what’s going on?!'"
United are ready for a major rebuild in the summer when Erik ten Hag is appointed in the summer. The Ajax boss will replace Ralf Rangnick in charge, with the latter moving into a consultancy role alongside managing Austria.
The highest United can now finish is sixth, meaning they won't be playing in the Champions League next season. This could make attracting high-profile players harder, with the Red Devils set for either the Europa League or the Europa Conference League depending on West Ham United's results between now and May 22.
