Football
ESPN staff 7y

Jose Mourinho declines to answer a 'bad question' about lack of handshake

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho declined to comment about a lack of a handshake with Stoke counterpart Mark Hughes after Saturday's 2-2 draw, calling a journalist's enquiry a "bad question."

Hughes admitted he may have slightly pushed Mourinho in the second half, and after the final whistle, the United boss went straight over to his assistants rather than go through the customary handshake with the opposing manager.

Asked about it at the end of his postgame interview with the BBC, Mourinho demurred before quickly exiting.

"I want to be polite with you, and I prefer not to answer to the question because your question is really a bad question," he said.

"It's really a bad question because it looks like it's my fault, it's my problem, and your question is not correct, I'm sorry."

Hughes said their brief clash in the technical area may have been behind the lack of a conciliatory postmatch gesture, but also suggested that Mourinho was upset with the result.

"I pushed him because he was in my technical area," Hughes said. "Maybe that's why he didn't want to shake my hand. Maybe it's because it has to be viewed as a negative result for him, coming to Stoke when everybody expected them to beat us.

"It's a negative. Sometimes managers of top-six clubs don't take negative results too kindly. Sometimes, because they're not used to having to take negative results, sometimes they react in the wrong way. Maybe he reacted in the wrong way."

Hughes, who has previously been snubbed by the likes of Tony Pulis and Arsene Wenger, was able to laugh it off, adding: "In fairness, I've got history with non-handshakes so maybe it's me! Who knows?"

United found goals from Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku to match a brace from Stoke's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, but could not find a late winner.

Mourinho said he was not pleased with the result, and aimed a barb at Stoke for not going for the victory themselves.

"No, I'm not satisfied with a point because we were the team closer to winning," he said. "I have to say it is a result I accept though.

"One team tried to win, one team tried to get the point but they fought hard to get that point -- they defended well, they counter-attacked and in set pieces they are powerful."

Earlier, Mourinho had told BT Sport that his squad were still recovering from the international break.

"It was a difficult match for different reasons," he said. "My players, after the international break, are not the same.

"They weren't performing at their normal level but we were in the game, we fought hard and we were closer to winning than losing.

"Stoke are big, strong and powerful in the air. They fought hard and probably deserved a point. A point is a point. It is not what we came for but a point is a point."

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