By Jose Mourinho is, as we know, a renegade. A loose cannon. A hard-boiled outsider, the collar of his trenchcoat flicked up as he strides the rain-slicked streets of Manchester alone.
That's possibly why at Manchester United's annual awards do last night, he gave this season's Manager's Player of the Year Award to work experience kid midfield colossus Scott McTominay.
Given his record of no goals and no assists in the 20 games he's played so far this season, McTominay said the award was "obviously, a surprise".
Mourinho explained afterwards to MUTV that far from being a pawn in the ongoing power struggle with Paul Pogba, as some commentators have suggested this season, McTominay's breakthrough was impressive enough to beat Nemanja Matic to the gong.
"I was going for [Matic], but then I understood in two awards for young players Scott was not getting one, I changed my mind because it wasn’t acceptable.
“He is the one who has done everything. He started the season in the academy and ended it playing big games in the Premier League. I thought this kid can not go home without an award.
“I always say that for me there are not young players or old players, it is just about the quality of the personality and this kid has everything that I want, so I think that it is good for the younger boys in the academy to look at him as an example of player.
“We know it is important to have players like Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford that were born in the club, but it is right to have the right profile. Scott gives to other players that the dream is still alive.”
McTominay told MUTV it was "a tremendous honour," and that he was "so, so grateful to the manger for choosing me."
He went on: “You always have your goals and ambitions and some years you exceed that and some year you don’t obviously it has been an amazing year for me playing 20 games and obviously next season you want 25, 30, 35 more.
“I always want more, everything that I do, I might not have scored or got an assist and there is always room for improvement.
“The concentration level you need to be switched on for every match, you want to grow up and learn from Matic, Pogba, Carrick.
"The best high was after the Liverpool game, it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. I’m a Manchester United fan, it doesn’t get much better than beating Liverpool. Marcus scoring two goals was a great day for the academy.”
