Where Mourinho’s final Man Utd XI are now – from Ten Hag favourite to £98m flop
It's been four years since Jose Mourinho's ill-fated spell at Manchester United was brought an abrupt end.
The Special One was sacked following his side's 3-1 defeat to Liverpool which left them 19 points off the top of the table, just seven months after guiding the club to a second-place finish, their best since Sir Alex Ferguson left.
Just four of the XI that stepped out under the floodlights at Anfield that night are still United players, with the vast majority of the matchday squad long gone not just from the club, but from elite football altogether.
Here, Daily Star Sport has taken a look at where each of them are now, and what they've been getting up to since the curtain was brought down on Mourinho's Old Trafford career.
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David de Gea
David de Gea was arguably in the form of his life in Mourinho's final season at United, though these days he walks a tightrope between match-winner and total liability.
The Spaniard fought off the challenge of Dean Henderson to remain United's No 1 goalkeeper, but his stock has dipped alarmingly over the past four years, so much so that he wasn't even selected for Spain's 2022 World Cup squad. Ouch.
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Matteo Darmian
Matteo Darmian struggled for minutes under Mourinho, but the Special One's departure didn't stop him from following suit at the end of the 2018/19 season and he headed back to Italy to join Parma.
Regular first team football did him a lot of good and he was snapped by Inter Milan on loan in 2020 before making the move permanent a year later after starring in Antonio Conte's title-winning team.
Eric Bailly
Eric Bailly didn't have the best of relationships with Mourinho but got along with his successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer even less.
A mix of poor form and injury troubles kept him out of the first team picture for large spells of the Norwegian manager's reign, and after being loaned out to Marseille in the summer it's fair to assume Erik ten Hag doesn't fancy him either. He's still on United's books, but for how much longer?
Victor Lindelof
Like Bailly, Lindelof doesn't appear to have much of a future at Old Trafford. Despite never really living up to the hype that surrounded his move from Benfica in 2017, the Swede has been a regular fixture in United's first team … until this season.
The summer arrival of Lisandro Martinez has pushed him to the peripheries of the squad and it's clear Ten Hag doesn't fancy him much. Another one for the soon-to-be-scrapped pile.
Ashley Young
Ashley Young's late-career renaissance as a full-back saw him cling on to a spot in United's first team for far longer than he ever ought to have done.
He dropped down the pecking order when Solskjaer came in and was sold to Inter Milan mid-way through the 2019/20 season. He helped them win the Serie A title, before returning to England with Aston Villa in 2021, and is still going strong at 37.
Diogo Dalot
Having spent the majority of his United career as an afterthought, Diogo Dalot has sensationally established himself not only as a first-team regular under Teg Hag, but also as one of the first names on the team sheet.
His form over the past two seasons saw him secure a regular spot in Portugal's squad too and he started three of his country's five World Cup matches out in Qatar.
Ander Herrera
Ander Herrera followed Mourinho out the door at the end of the 2018/19 season and joined PSG, and although he found minutes hard to come by initially, he became a first-team regular when Mauricio Pochettino arrived at the start of his second season in Paris.
He joined boyhood club Athletic Bilbao on loan in the summer following Pochettino's departure, and at age 33, there's a decent chance the move could become permanent next year.
Nemanja Matic
Nemanja Matic never quite hit the heights of his Chelsea career at Old Trafford, but remained more-or-less a first team regular for five seasons before his departure in the summer.
Where is now? He's at Roma, playing under Mourinho for the third time in his career. He's the special one's special one.
Marcus Rashford
The goals started flowing for Marcus Rashford following Mourinho's departure (make of that what you will), but a severe dip in form following England's Euro 2020 final defeat last summer has left his United future hanging in the balance.
Rumours of a move to PSG have been swirling for months, though after watching him shine out in Qatar, United probably won't be too keen to let him leave.
Jesse Lingard
Having been a United first team regular since 2015, Jesse Lingard fell mysteriously out of favour under Solskjaer in 2020. A bright loan spell at West Ham made the Norwegian reconsider his position, though the arrivals of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho pushed Lingard back to the sidelines.
He joined Nottingham Forest in the summer, controversially rejecting a move back to West Ham in favour of a big pay day. After just one goal in 14 matches, it's fair to say it hasn't really worked out for him.
Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku left for Inter Milan in the summer of 2019 and began banging in the goals like never before. Two years in Italy, which culminated in a Serie A title, saw him return to the Premier League with Chelsea in a mega £98m move that went south quicker than a Jumbo Jet bound for Australia.
The Belgian maddeningly hit out at Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel's tactics mid-way through his debut season and was immediately benched, before being loaned back to Inter in the summer. Fitness troubles have hampered his homecoming, though judging by his performances at the World Cup, the very best of Lukaku might be long gone.
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