Jose Mourinho: Manchester United manager's sharp tongue on display at Old Trafford unveiling

If anyone thought that the first half of Chelsea’s 2015-16 season, in which the defending champions were abysmal on the field, would have dented the self-confidence of their then manager they would have been plain old wrong. If anyone thought that the ugly nature of that period at Stamford Bridge off the field would have blunted their then manager’s tongue, wrong again.

Jose Mourinho is back and if he has regrets from the turbulent end of his time in London they were not up for discussion at his first press conference as the new manager of Manchester United on Tuesday. No apology to the former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro, whose name he helped drag through the mud, no admission of errors made with the playing staff at the Bridge who he managed to disenchant to the extent they were all-but waving the white flag before the Portuguese was sacked.

Nope, Mourinho’s tongue was as a sharp as ever, the old confrontational attitude very much in evidence. It took a mere five minutes for him to remind us of his bitter, ugly, and some might say tiresome, dislike of Arsene Wenger, attacking the Arsenal manager with the old dig about not having won the Premier League for a decade when he was given the opportunity to hold his hands over mistakes made at Chelsea.

“There are some managers that the last time they won a title was 10 years ago,” Mourinho said when he was asked if he had a point to prove after the calamity of last season. “Some of them the last time they won a title was never. The last time I won a title was one year ago, not 10 years ago or 15 years ago so if I have a lot to prove, imagine the others.”

Mourinho also chose to go on the attack when the perfectly legitimate topic of him bringing through youth players was raised. He could name them, he said. In fact, he had all 49 names written down in a book he began to leaf through. He could disprove the lie.

There was the odd moment of levity: a gag about the Manchester weather, a witty aside when he ‘accidently’ let slip that United had made a third signing - Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund - even though it hasn’t been announced yet. There was pleasantries, calling one journalist “my friend”, saying “thank you guys, see you soon” at the end. But there were enough barbs, enough menace in Mourinho’s voice to make clear that his Old Trafford reign has the potential to be as confrontational and bitter as his time at Chelsea became.

When Mourinho rejoined Chelsea from the maelstrom he had created at Real Madrid, where he caused divisions in the changing room and fuelled the fires of hatred with Barcelona to unprecedented levels, he promised we would see his softer side. It was what Chelsea wanted of him, too. The club had had enough of the poor PR that came with sacking manager after manager, that came with their captain being dragged through the courts. They wanted stability and success. Mourinho could only deliver the latter before his ego got in the way.

It is hard to see much will be different at Old Trafford. This is not a man for changing, climbing down or softening his ways and as such his Manchester United journey will be as bumpy as all his others. There was evidence aplenty of that on day one.