"You're the Useless One": Mkhitaryan on His Conflict with Mourinho

Former captain of the Armenian national team, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, in his autobiographical book "La mia vita sempre al centro" ("My life is always in the center"), shed light on the difficult and tense relationship he had with Portuguese coach José Mourinho at "Manchester United." In the book, he describes in detail the incidents that made their joint work from 2016 to 2018 "unbearable." The tension reached its peak during a heated argument when he could no longer tolerate the coach's constant criticism. "I told him that you have been criticizing me for a year and a half, since I arrived at 'Manchester United'," Mkhitaryan writes.

According to the Armenian footballer, Mourinho called him "useless" in response, which was the last straw. "I just lost my self-control, responding, 'you are the useless one'," he confesses. After this incident, Mourinho changed his tactics, switching to psychological pressure. During training, he completely ignored Mkhitaryan, maintaining a cold silence, but every evening he sent the same message via WhatsApp: "Miki, leave, please."

Mkhitaryan notes that at first, he responded with patience, writing that he would leave only if he found a suitable team, otherwise he would wait for the summer transfer window. However, the situation changed when Mourinho revealed his true intention. "In mid-January, the text changed slightly: 'Miki, please leave so I can bring in Alexis Sánchez'," he writes.

At that point, the footballer's agent, Mino Raiola, was already working on a swap deal with "Arsenal." Mkhitaryan's response became tougher: "I'm not leaving just to please you, and please, stop writing to me. If you want, talk to Mino."

As a result, the swap took place: Alexis Sánchez moved to "Manchester United," and Mkhitaryan to "Arsenal."