David Moyes will return to Old Trafford today as he takes his Sunderland side to face his former club Manchester United.
Given the former Everton manager's less than successful spell in charge of United after replacing the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, it is unlikely he will receive a great reception from the Red Devils faithful.
However, speaking ahead of the fixture, Mourinho - the man now charged with bringing back United to their former glories - has attempted to explain it was so hard for Moyes to succeed three years ago.
“The problem is if you have the conditions to follow that success and history. And then that’s a different story," the Portuguese explained, via The Mirror.
“For me it was easy. A difficult job, but easy to feel at home. Easy to feel good in the club, easy to feel that the club wants to progress, the people want to be happy again and I felt good immediately."
Mourinho himself has endured some tough times since taking over in the summer. However, he doesn't think he has had it as tough as Moyes did, for two specific reasons.
“It’s one thing to have Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, all those guys at 25, 26, 27,” said Mourinho.
“It’s another thing to have them at 31 or 32, another thing if it doesn’t happen. Obviously that plays a part, so there are generations and in a certain period, when David came, the situation was probably not so easy, not so easy to go in that winning direction.
"At the same time - I think this is even more important - the Premier League was changing.
“I knew the evolution of the Premier League and that periods of domination belonged to the past, because it was going already in an incredible direction and it is what it is now."
There is no denying that Ferguson left his successor with an ageing squad. And given the shift in emphasis in the Premier League maybe nobody would have had success when taking over at Old Trafford in 2013.
Still, Mourinho's explanation isn't likely to convince the majority of Red Devils supporters that Moyes should be given a standing ovation this afternoon.
Instead, they will be focusing on seeing whether their current manager can make it 11 games unbeaten.
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