Jose Mourinho says he has not coached many better players than Nemanja Matic, in terms of personality and desire to win.

Mourinho brought Matic to Old Trafford from Chelsea in the summer, the club who Matic signed for from Benfica also by Jose Mourinho. It means the Portuguese has signed the defensive midfielder on two occasions, signalling that the boss thinks very highly of the Serbian international.

It is fair to say that Mourinho has coached some of the finest players that the game has ever seen. With managerial spells at Porto, Chelsea, Real Madrid and now Manchester United, it is clear he has managed some of the best around. However, the boss says he believes new signing Nemanja Matic is up there with some of the top players he has managed.

“Matic, I cannot say that I had better guys than him in my career,” he told the Times.

“And he has with me something which marks forever, which was a match where he was on the bench, I play him minute 45 and I took him off minute 70, 75.”

“The press wants a story, the press wants blood. My blood, or his blood, or both. He was really sad. I was also sad because it’s not something nice and it’s something that I did only twice in my career.”

“But the next day he comes to me and he says, ‘I’m not happy, but it’s my fault. I’m not happy with what you did to me, but it’s my fault, because the way I was playing I can understand the change. So let’s keep going.”

“We didn’t keep going for a long time because a few weeks later I was sacked. But again he was one of “my guys”, was one of the guys that we kept close during these years even not working together. So I know that the big man is there, even with more maturity.”