Watch this classic clip of Brian Clough and Don Revie in the Yorkshire Television studio in 1974, broadcast just hours after Leeds United brought to an end his spell at Elland Road after just 44 days.
Fast-forward to Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, perch him on one of those big bar stools Sky are so fond of in their Isleworth studios and sit him alongside the man English football is suddenly yearning for.
'But why, Jose?'
'I thought it was the best job in the country.'
'It is the best job in the country. They are the best bunch of players you've ever seen and you'll ever get to...'
'I wanted to win more trophies.'
'There's no way you could win more. We won five trophies.'
'Well I wanted the Community Shield.'
'Oh, Jose, no way...'Unfortunately it is television that will never happen, not least because Ferguson will never allow Jose Mourinho, not in a million years, to get his hands on this Manchester United
team.
Cup clash: Sir Alex Ferguson (left) and Jose Mourinho pose with the Champions League trophy
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Mourinho would dearly love to and so would his acolytes, but irrespective of this evening's result in the Champions League, he is not the man to manage Manchester United and never will be.
He wants to return to the Barclays Premier League, the sooner the better after telling friends that life with Inter Milan is likely to come to end within a year.
Mourinho will not walk out on the Italians, he likes a pound note far too much to consider that, but he is willing to talk and clubs in the Premier League are likely to listen.
Manchester United will not be one of them.
He was talking of returning to Chelsea
a few weeks back, the club who spent £16m to get rid of him in September 2007 when they could no longer tolerate his volatile temperament.
Just prior to that he appeared to be angling for Liverpool, ingratiating himself with their supporters with a Bluffer's Guide to the history and the traditions of the club, as well as committing the words to 'You'll Never Walk Alone' to memory. He is fast running out of alternatives.
Prize pair: Mourinho (left) and Sir Alex put their players through their paces
It has taken Ferguson 23 years to build United, supervising the club's move from The Cliff, the legendary training ground which was once home to Duncan Edwards, Georgie Best and Terry Gibson, to their fabulous, world-class facility at Carrington.
Three of the four beautifully cantilevered stands at Old Trafford, so large that the shadow of the South Stand stretches as far as Lou Macari's fish and chip shop on Chester Road, have been developed over three decades of sustained success.
Inside the stadium, the team enjoys the limelight, living out the dreams of the 76,000 supporters and continuing to lift trophies under a manager who has no intention of letting Mourinho loose on the team he built with his bare hands.
Mourinho became too big for Chelsea, more important than the team who won two Premier League titles, two Carling Cups and the FA Cup during an eventful spell in London that lasted just over three years.
For all the drama and the entertainment, do not forget the unedifying moments, the times when UEFA branded him 'the enemy of football', or telling Graham Poll precisely what he thought of him during Chelsea's 0-0 draw with United at Stamford Bridge in on May 9 2007.
He is an impact manager, skilfully winning over the English influence in the dressing room when he was appointed in 2004 by immediately travelling to the national team's hotel in Manchester, where they were preparing for the Euros, to meet John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Bridge and Joe Cole.
That is Mourinho at his astute best, but he would tear that Manchester United team apart, ripping up Ferguson's template and trying to do it his own way. That is not the United way.
One of Ferguson's greatest achievements was 'knocking Liverpool right off their f*****g perch', but he also knows that the succession of internal boot room appointments from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan to Kenny Dalglish created a devastating dynasty.
Despite his interview following last season's Champions League final against Chelsea, when he promised to quit at the end of the 2010 season, few at Old Trafford believe that he is preparing his exit strategy.
Instead, it is more likely that he will move upstairs, into the director of football role that Sir Matt Busby accepted nearly 40 years ago and having a fairly hefty say in his successor.
For consistency's sake, there will be no clean break when Ferguson decides that he is no longer capable of managing the team day to day. He has a job for life at Old Trafford and he is already earmarking his potential replacement.
Carlos Quieroz is precisely the kind of man Ferguson can control. A disaster when he was at Real Madrid, heading the same way with Portugal and yet he has one major advantage over Mourinho.
Queiroz, unlike his Portuguese compatriot, will do exactly as he is told.
Source: DSG
