Jose Mourinho predicts Premier League and Champions League winners on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast… and singles out one former side he would ‘love’ to win silverware this year

Jose Mourinho has named the teams he backs to win the Premier League and Champions League this season.

He also revealed which of his former parties he would ‘like’ to continue and take credit for this campaign.

The Portuguese coach is out of work after being sacked by Roma in January, once again succumbing to the third season syndrome that has dogged his career.

Appearing on Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube channel, he treated viewers to his immediate future, his battle to rid the Manchester United dressing room of bad eggs, and his favorite midfielder from England’s golden generation.

Moreover, he gave his final predictions on the Premier League and the Champions League.

Predictably, he had Manchester City as his contender in both competitions and preferred them for the Premier League

He also named Liverpool as the other side that could take top honors nationally

On the home front, he briefly considered Manchester City and Liverpool before putting his eggs in Pep Guardiola’s basket by favoring his former rival’s side.

“Champions League, I would say City or Real Madrid,” said Football.com’s global ambassador.

“If someone from outside (those two) wins the prize, it would be a big surprise for me.

‘I would really like Real Madrid to win it again for the club and for Carlo (Ancelotti). I don’t know, Bayern Munich can do it, Paris Saint-Germain.

“When I look at the potential, I think City/Liverpool will go for the Premier (League), City/Real will go for the Champions (League).”

In fairness to Mourinho, his three former Premier League sides are all out of contention in the league, and they don’t appear to be in contention for England’s top spot either.

His interview with Ferdinand and Stephen Howson was wide-ranging and at times emotional.

He admitted that his departure from Roma, where he won the Europa Conference League and reached a Europa League final, ‘hurt him the most’.

There was no mention of Arsenal for either tournament – even though they are level with City domestically and in the second round of the Champions League

Mourinho said he would love to see Real Madrid win the Champions League for the 15th time

“I gave everything, I gave my heart, I even gave some options that could be considered not very smart from a professional point of view,” he said.

“I’ve turned down some great job opportunities. The first was very hard to refuse because it was the Portugal national team, probably the best Portugal national team ever and three years before a World Cup.

‘Then I had a big one from Saudi Arabia and I didn’t hide it at the time because it was really big.

‘I did it. Normally I am very pragmatic in my choices, very professional in my choices and I try to be very emotionally controlled, and you could see that when I left other clubs after winning the final.

‘In this case I wasn’t pragmatic, I was emotional and I gave it my all. So when I finally left, I left hurt. I had this wonderful feeling that I was giving people so much happiness.

‘Two European finals in a row does not happen often, especially at a club like Roma, which does not have a great history of European success.

‘Then I was walking in the street and people were saying, “take us to Dublin, take us to Dublin” (for this year’s Europa League final) and so I had that in mind, the third European final in a row.

His dismissal from Roma in January was the one that “hurt me the most”, he revealed

‘But you have to have respect, the owner is always the owner. It’s not the first time I leave a club, it’s probably the first time I experience it in a different way.

“You move on, you try to learn from the experience to be better for the next one.”

All three parts of the interview are available at FIVE’s YouTube channel – The full interview with Jose Mourinho will be available on the @FIVEUK, Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts audio platforms.