Jose Mourinho used to say that coming second in the league with Manchester United was one of the greatest accomplishments of his career while also summing up the downfall of the Red Devils after Sir Alex Ferguson as "football heritage". Only now are Man United showing signs of recovery under their former star center midfielder MIchael Carrick, who has instilled some of what was missing from those golden years.
Now set to take over as Real Madrid manager again, Mourinho is bringing the guile and prescience built over years of winning at the elite level to try and get Los Blancos back on track, too, after two straight trophyless seasons.
Mourinho has the final say on personnel decisions, and while he is working hard to bring in more star defenders to add to incoming transfers Ibrahima Konate and Denzel Dumfries, he is also blocking some potential high profile departures.
Aurelien Tchouameni is not for sale
Manchester United already benefited from the pedigree and experience of Real Madrid legend Casemiro in the midfield, and they are trying to sign the player whom Real brought in to replace him after that transfer to Old Trafford in 2022, Aurelien Tchouameni.
While Man United were initially optimistic that they had a real shot at taking the Frenchman from the Santiago Bernabeu, that does not appear to be the case. According to a report from Samuel Luckhurst of The Sun, Jose Mourinho has made it clear to his former employers that he wants to keep Tchouameni at Real Madrid for the foreseeable future.
Tchouameni had a poor 2025/26 season, but his quality is difficult to dispute. He is a great player technically and athletically, and whlie he has a lot of potential tactically, he has not put together the mental part of the game consistently as a No. 6.
Mourinho was brought in by Florentino Perez to help get young stars like Tchouameni up to speed and playing at their best, and he relishes that challenge with nothing to lose. The Portuguese manager probably feels great about his odds of getting Tchou to play at a world class level, and it is hard to envision Real Madrid readliy nabbing someone better.
Manchester United already signed Brazilian star Ederson from Atalanta, a long time transfer target of theirs. Tchouameni may be off the board for now, but the Red Devils can head back to the list and look at other options like Adam Wharton, Elliot Anderson, Bruno Guimaraes, Alex Scott and Angelo Stiller.
Add us as a preferred source on Google