Jose Mourinho lost out to West Ham as £8m signing explains why Manchester United didn’t happen

Add as preferred source on Google

It is not every day a footballer finds himself in the crosshairs of not only West Ham United but also Tony Pulis, Jose Mourinho, West Brom and Manchester United.

It is even rarer for a footballer to come out publicly and talk about how a desire for a bigger wage fuelled his attempts to leave the club where he had made his name.

Yet, Jose Fonte could not help but feel that his rise to prominence at Southampton really should have been replicated in a rise in his pay-packet.

Fonte would later describe West Ham as a ‘mess’ during his thirteen month spell – even if he did enjoy working with Slaven Bilic and relished wearing the claret and blue kit – but the then-Portugal international felt he was justified in demanding his new-found status as a Premier League stalwart and a European Championship winner be reflected in his wages.

According to The Telegraph, West Ham United handed Fonte a contract worth around £70,000-a-week. A massive increase on the £45,000 he was earning at St Mary’s.

Remarkably, Jose Fonte is still going strong in Portuguese football. He has played nine Primeira Liga matches this season, and captains Casa Pia at the grand old age of 41.

He will turn 42 in December.

And, in a tell-all interview with DAZN Portugal, Fonte reflects on how his move to West Ham came about nearly a decade ago, and opens up on the potential of an Iberian link-up with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.

Jose Fonte explains why he left Southampton for West Ham United

A £1.2 million signing from Crystal Palace in 2010, Fonte is comfortably cemented among the pantheon of modern-day Southampton greats.

Alongside Adam Lallana, the long-serving centre-back went from a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy champion to a Premier League regular in those red and white stripes, making nearly 300 appearances in the process.

By his own admission, though, the relationship between himself and the club changed a little once Fonte started arguing that a reported £45,000-a-week wage was not reflective of a footballer of his pedigree.

“The truth is, I really liked being at Southampton and I never really forced a move. But it got to a point where I wanted to earn a little more,” Fonte explains. “I was the captain, I had just won the Euros , I was feeling a bit confident.

“I started looking around and thinking; ‘The goalkeeper earns more than me. The 18 or 19-year-old earns more than me. Something’s wrong here.’ And I asked for more. I asked for a little more. And that’s when the relationship started to change, because they had renewed my contract a year or six months ago.

“But I spoke, I felt I had the right to speak. And the relationship started to be different from then on.”

Phil Jones blocked potential Jose Mourinho link-up at Manchester United

According to The Guardian, compatriot Jose Mourinho had hoped to bring the Euro 2016 winner to Old Trafford. Fonte, at the time, admitted that interest from the Red Devils left him ‘flattered’. But with Man United unable to move on the perma-crocked Phil Jones, the battle for his signature became a two horse race between West Ham and West Brom.

“During the summer, there was talk of Mourinho and Manchester United, but then Jorge Mendes told me that Phil Jones wasn’t going to leave, that everything depended on Phil Jones,” Fonte adds. “But Mourinho wasn’t sure if Phil Jones would leave.

“Nothing concrete ever came of it, just conversations and rumours. The only thing that emerged were offers from the Premier League, but from other clubs; West Ham and West Bromwich Albion.

“And, in the end, I decided on West Ham.”

Fonte was delighted to see David Moyes bring happier times to the London Stadium

Jose Fonte left for the Chinese Super League and Dalian Yifang just over a year after joining West Ham in January 2017. He returned to Europe soon enough, though, with French side Lille.

Alongside Sven Botman, Jonathan David, Renato Sanchez and Mike Maignan, Fonte was a regular in the Lille team which snatched the Ligue 1 title from under the noses of Paris Saint-Germain in 2020/21.

“From the time I was there, I think the progression [at West Ham] been fantastic,” Fonte told talkSPORT shortly after lifting the French title, at a time in which David Moyes was putting the Hammers back on the right track.

“At the time it was kind of a little bit of a mess. We had a few problems, obviously but I enjoyed my time at West Ham a lot.”