Jose Mourinho has talked about the support Sir Alex Ferguson has offered him since taking charge of Manchester United and before.

The support I feel is the support I’ve always felt with him, except when I was a direct competitor and playing against his teams. I always felt this kind of support. I think I felt the same when I was abroad in Italy and Spain. Friends wishing good to each other, supporting each other by a simple SMS that can mean a lot in a certain moment. No more than that.

He’s very respectful too. He doesn’t want to be around. He doesn’t want to be around too many times. I think he feels completely free. I told him this is house, always and forever, but just a couple of times he travelled with us on the bus, he visited us once. We know this is his club, his life and that he’s supporting us.

These comments came after Ferguson sang the praises of Mourinho. Our former manager claims our current one has got the club heading in the right direction.

I think he has done a great job. You can see he has got to grips with the club. The team is playing really well and he has been very unlucky. He has had six 1-1 draws and in every game he has battered the opposition. If they hadn’t had all these draws, they would be there challenging Chelsea. That is the unfortunate part but he is going to have to live with that.

I was a little bit different from Jose in the respect that I wanted to build the football club and wanted young players to be part of that. Nonetheless, the first team weren’t doing great and you have to find solutions to correct that. I think Jose is finding solutions now. There was a period earlier in the season when he wasn’t getting the decisions and his emotions boiled over. You see him now – he is calm and in control.