Mourinho: “Miki, please leave" - The Hilarious Story Behind Mkhitaryan’s Manchester United Exit

Mourinho: “Miki, please leave" - The Hilarious Story Behind Mkhitaryan’s Manchester United Exit

Jose Mourinho is one of football’s great characters. Over the years, he has shocked, entertained and baffled in equal measure, and has an endless list of memorable and hilarious moments: the famous “I am the special one” interviews, celebrating in front of the Liverpool fans, “I prefer not to speak”, and who can forget that cracking tackle on Olly Murs at the Soccer Aid charity match?

One of the best Jose Mourinho moments ever 😂pic.twitter.com/opKMbHLbzD

— PurelyFootball ℗ (@PurelyFootball) October 3, 2025

Now, thanks to the release of an ex-player’s autobiography, yet another classically hilarious Mourinho moment has entered the public domain. Hardly anything he does these days is surprising anymore - with Jose, we have learnt to expect the unexpected - but the story released by Henrikh Mkhitaryan earlier today was simply too good not to tell.

Underperforming

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s spell at Man United never managed to get out of first gear. Aside from his magnificent (offside) scorpion kick against Sunderland in December 2016, one which Olivier Giroud would one-up the very next week, the Armenian failed to deliver on the promise he showed at his previous club, Borussia Dortmund.

However, he was a player marked out and pursued by Jose Mourinho, who arrived at the Red Devils two months before Mkhitaryan, which makes this story even more bizarre.

Mkhitaryan with an amazing Scorpion Kick goal! Goal of the season? 🔥 pic.twitter.com/zKlridRt3V

— Football Cvlture (@FootballCVLTURE) December 26, 2016

It quickly became clear that the winger was not the player Mourinho thought he was getting, with poor performance after poor performance relegating him to a bit part role. Heavily critical of the Armenian on the training ground (which his performances certainly warranted), a rift inevitably opened up between the two.

Now, when Jose has his mind set on something, the combined forces of the United Nations would struggle to stop him reaching his end goal. His goal in this case? To heckle the player either into some good form or into leaving the club. So when Mkhitaryan predictably grew sick of the criticism at the start of the 2017/18 season and snapped back at the Portuguese, the outcome was quintessentially Jose.

‘Let Me Get Alexis’

In his autobiography, Mkhitaryan revealed, “I had lost my patience with Mourinho. I said to him, ‘you have been criticizing me for two years; you are sht.’” If there is one thing worse than not performing for Mourinho, it is calling sht. Of course, everyone’s favourite sh*thouse wasn’t having it, and the manager subsequently stopped talking to him in training sessions, saying, “I never want to see you again.”

However, he did not cut off contact altogether, maintaining a WhatsApp chat with the out-of-favour wideman, albeit a chat that wasn't exactly filled with friendly exchanges.

In Henrikh’s words, “Every night he would send a text saying, ‘Miki, please go away.’ Classic Jose. But it gets even better, as close to the January transfer window, Mourinho’s messages changed to “Miki, please leave so I can get Alexis (Sanchez).”

🚨🚨🎙️| Henrikh Mkhitaryan confirmed how Jose Mourinho begged him several times to leave Manchester United, and refused to speak to him during training sessions:

"He wrote of Mourinho: "I told him, you’ve been criticising me for a year-and-a-half now, ever since I arrived at… pic.twitter.com/iFf3x4ne4G

— centredevils. (@centredevils) October 10, 2025

Now look, obviously this would not have been a pleasant situation for the player. To be told to leave so bluntly by your manager would damage more than just your pride - but the fact that Mourinho kept this up for weeks, and perhaps even months, is an impressive achievement in itself. He simply will not be deterred, even if it comes at a cost of being exposed all these years later.

Upon every text he received, the Armenian would copy and paste the same response, saying, “I will leave if I find the right team; otherwise, I’ll wait for summer.”

When Mourinho’s message changed, so did Miki’s: “I am not leaving just to do you a favour, and please stop writing to me. If you want, talk to (my agent) Mino (Raiola).”

Did Everything Work Out in the End?

Eventually, both men got what they wished for. Mkhitaryan escaped the tirade of WhatsApp messages when he moved in a swap deal to Arsenal, and Mourinho got the man he desired, as on the other side of that swap deal was none other than Alexis Sanchez.

However, neither got a good deal. Mkhitaryan would continue his underwhelming stint in the Premier League at the Emirates, netting nine goals in 59 games before leaving the club for Roma, first on loan and then permanently when his Gunners contract expired. Remarkably, the two would reunite at the club in 2021, and Mkhitaryan would be a crucial part of the team that reached the UEFA Conference League final together - by the time Miki departed for Inter Milan, they had seemingly repaired their fractured relationship.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan on Jose Mourinho: ''We're going to win in Europe,” we often said in the Trigoria locker room. Mourinho had the entire training center plastered with photos of the trophy and the slogan, “WE MUST WIN.” pic.twitter.com/icxT7y6Aw0

— • (@Not_Eternal2) October 9, 2025

Meanwhile, Mourinho found himself in the middle of a veritable car crash once the club bought in Sanchez. From the moment he was announced with a video of him tickling the ivories of a grand piano (for reasons we still don’t understand), the move seemed to be doomed, and so it proved to be.

Despite scoring against his former team early on in his United spell, Sanchez never settled. In total, he made 45 appearances for the club and helped himself to a whopping five goals in that time, before ditching Manchester for the Mediterranean weather of Milan in the summer of 2019.

The story goes to show the lengths managers are willing to go in order to get a player off their hands or sign a top target. And as is usually the case with Mourinho, the story encompasses both, because for a larger-than-life character, there must be a larger-than-life story.