Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has labelled modern footballers ‘brats’ as he admits he cannot work with the kind of professionals he had at Chelsea over ten years ago.
The Portuguese tactician made the move to Old Trafford last summer after a difficult second spell at Stamford Bridge, and has not enjoyed the same kind of success he had earlier in his career.
Using Frank Lampard as a prime example, Mourinho says that while in the past he was working with men, he would now refer to his players as ‘boys’.
The 54-year-old insists he has tried his best to keep up with the modern generation, but also believes many current players are ‘brats’ in comparison to what he’s used to.
‘I have had to adapt to a new world and what young players are like now,’ Mourinho told France Football.
‘I had to understand the difference between working with a boy like Frank Lampard who, at the age of 23, was already a man – who thought football, work, professionalism – and the new boys today, who at the age of 23 are kids.
‘Today I call them ‘boys’ and not ‘men’. Because I think that they are brats and that everything that surrounds them does not help them in their life nor in my work. I had to adjust to all of that.
‘Ten years ago, no player had a mobile phone in the dressing room. That is no longer the case. But you have to go with it, because if you fight that you are bringing about conflict and you risk putting yourself in the stone age.’
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