Jose Mourinho says he was unable to get the best out of Alexis Sanchez as he was a "sad man" at Manchester United.
The former Red Devils boss broke the bank to land the Chilean from Arsenal, swapping him for out of favour Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
It looked to be stroke of genius from Mourinho, who fended off interest from rivals Manchester City by offering Sanchez the biggest contract ever handed to a player at Old Trafford.
But just 19 months on and both men are no longer at United, with Mourinho being sacked and replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Sanchez being shipped out on loan to Inter Milan.
Revealing why he couldn't get the best out of Sanchez, Mourinho opened up on the Chilean's mood at Old Trafford.
"Sanchez… I felt him [to be] not a happy man. And I think in every job you have when you are not happy it is not so easy to perform at every level. And maybe I am wrong," Mourinho told The Telegraph.
"Maybe it was me who was not capable to get into him and to get the best out of him.
"As a manager sometimes you have the capacity to get the best out of the players and other times you are not successful in that approach.
"But the reality is that I always felt [of Sanchez], 'a sad man'.
"So probably in Italy he will recover this. I hope he can. I always wish well to every player."
