Jose Mourinho became the first manager in Manchester United’s history to win a major trophy in his debut campaign on Sunday.The Red Devils recovered after throwing away a 2-0 lead to defeat Southampton 3-2 in the EFL Cup final, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic showing his class with a late winner.Man United supporters will be hoping this is the first of many for Mourinho at Old Trafford. Nobody thought United were back when Louis van Gaal lifted the FA Cup last season, but this latest success feels much more affirmative.The club are also in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and will fancy their chances of reaching the last-eight of the Europa League after being drawn against FC Rostov in last week’s draw.So we could be talking about United as multiple winners in a few months’ time.Despite the trophy, Mourinho refused to let himself get carried away in the celebrations as his players dabbed and danced on Wembley’s turf.Instead of elation, the Portuguese simply felt relieved after the win.
Mourinho was relieved
"I'm very happy. I'm very happy,” Mourinho said, via the Manchester Evening News. “As I was saying before it's important for the fans, for the club, for the players.
"I always try to put myself in the secondary position but the reality is that it is also important for me.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself, I wanted very much to win a major trophy with every club and by doing that with Manchester United it's quite a sense of relief because it was a big target for me to win a trophy with Manchester United.”
Mourinho wants more trophies
With two more years remaining on his contract, Mourinho is eyeing yet more silverware.
He continued: “The reality is we want more, my contract is long, I have two more years plus this one, so hopefully I can win something and this season I know it's difficult but the reality is that we have to try and fight for more."
So Man United fans shouldn’t take too much stock in Mourinho’s muted celebrations. If anything, they should be happy that he clearly wants more than just an EFL Cup trophy to shout about.
Southampton will feel aggrieved
United’s success came at the expense of a Southampton team that was arguably the better team on the day. Had Manolo Gabbiadini’s early goal been allowed to stand, or Oriol Romeu’s header, which hit the post, been two inches to the left, then we could be talking about Claude Puel’s team as the winners.
Yet one Southampton fan took his frustration about 20 steps too far by swearing in Mourinho’s face as he climbed the steps to collect the trophy.
Pretty disgraceful behaviour.
Twitter reacts
Fans on Twitter condemned the individual’s actions, and rightly so.
Emotions were clearly running high, and it could be a while before that fan sees his team in a final at Wembley Stadium again.
But that was just unnecessary.