5 reasons to believe Jose Mourinho is a changed man at Manchester United

2. Relationship with the Board

Mourinho pictured with Manchester United's CEO Ed Woodward

With the heavy influx of money at Chelsea by Russian billionaire which was complemented by the tactical prowess of Jose Mourinho, Chelsea won the league title after 50 years in 2004-05 and successfully defended it the following season.

A new club was trying its luck in stopping the hegemony of Manchester United. And many believed that this new formed manager-owner relationship was the foundation of this sudden success. But the relationship ended abruptly in 2007 when Mourinho was sacked following a series of disputes between the two.

Mourinho was re-hired by Chelsea in 2013 and broken bridges appeared to have been mended. Mourinho led them to domestic glory in 2014. What followed was a woeful title defence, with Chelsea languishing in the bottom half of the table for the majority of the season. He was shown the door once again and this time, perhaps, he would have seen it coming.

Jose Mourinho on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich: "He was never my friend. We always had the relationship of owner-manager; a very respectful relationship. We were never friends. We were never close to each other. So, no, he is just a person that I keep very respected."

“If you ask me, if my team scores a goal am I going to celebrate like a crazy kid?’ No. I think I can control the emotion of that situation. Am I going to have a negative reaction if the crowd has something negative with me? No. I think, again, I have the maturity enough to control the emotion. I have lots of respect.”

Mourinho, when it comes to assembling his squad is acknowledged for his attention to detail and maintaining a balance in his team. He also demands all transfers take place as early as possible, in time for pre-season, so that he can have maximum time to get his squad synced with his own ideas ahead of the new season.

After the 2016-17 season in which United won the Community Shield, the EFL Cup and became champions of the Europa league, Mourinho revealed that he has a four-man shortlist of transfer targets. One of Mourinho's exceptional achievement is winning the league title in his second season at every stint of his managerial career.

Hence it is easy to deduce how desperate he was to get his transfers done and dusted before United flew off for preseason. But when July came, United had only signed centre back Victor Lindelof from Benfica, with reportedly close deals for Antoine Griezmann and Fabinho stalling.

When the Premier League returned in all its glory in August 2017, United had signed two more players with Everton's hitman Romelu Lukaku joining the club along with Nemanja Matic from Chelsea.

When quizzed if he had any frustrations, Mourinho said: "I told Mr Woodward that obviously, my plans were four, but I also told him 'be cool, no pressure from me, do what you think is best for the club'. We will be together again for another transfer window in January and another next summer, so there is no pressure from me at all. I'm happy with the squad we have and I'm ready to go without the fourth player. If we are out of the market, I'm fine. I'm ready."

This certainly does not sound like the Mourinho of old, who would have tried to suppress his frustration by focussing elsewhere or by remarking "I have no comments" as he has often done in the past. Are the Devils' angels working magic on the special one? Or is he completely confident in the returning Zlatan Ibrahimovic, come January?