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Mourinho: 'I learn from me every day'

Cape Town - Jose Mourinho reveals that he has been going through a lot of changes as he looks to return to football management.

MUST READ: 'I miss my football', says jobless Mourinho

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, the 56-year-old admits that he is eager for a return to managing a top European football side while touching on change, mistakes and his identity.

The Portuguese has been without a job since December following his abrupt exit at Manchester United.

"I learn from me every day," he said. "With the mistakes you make you learn a lot. With the mistakes that others make you also learn a lot.

"You are going to make mistakes all the time. The point is, don't make the same mistakes. But mistakes will come again and again.

"Victories are very important. They are the things that stay forever in your history and the history of football, but sometimes you learn more with the difficulties and that's the feeling I have."

While many critics believe that Mourinho’s failure at the Red Devils was due to his football philosophy and identity, the manager remains adamant that he will not "lose" his identity.

"You cannot lose your identity, you are who you are and honestly I am so happy with who I am," he said.

"But there is a new period ahead of me, there is a new challenge, I think many challenges ahead of me and honestly I look to that with more enthusiasm than looking back at what I did before.

"What I did, I did, because I am so motivated. It is difficult to be, for the first time, without my football."

Mourinho has reportedly declined two huge cash offers from the Chinese Super League with former club Benfica approaching the manager.

He also revealed that he has a new backroom staff and looks forward to working with people who have fresh ideas.

"I am reading and studying and producing things. I analyse different sports, I meet my future staff, because my future staff is going to be different to my previous staff because I thought it was the moment for a few changes," he revealed.

"Nothing personal, of course not, but in relation to the knowledge, to the motivation, I think it's a good moment to do that.

"I meet them, we speak, we analyse, we try to produce documentation to be the base for the next work, so we are always thinking."

Mourinho has been spending his free time back in Portugal where he has been rekindling friendships and visiting his old neighbourhood.

He revealed that a friend told him to look at his current situation with a Charles Darwin view.

"It's very important to study," Mourinho said. "I like to read people from different periods, different generations and recently a friend of mine told me 'think about Charles Darwin'.

"He wrote: 'It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change'.

"Sometimes the change is not always for better, not always, sometimes we change for worse, but it's important to understand the change and you adapt to it, so I would say I am really thinking about that.

"It's not enough to be one of the strongest ones. It's not enough to be one of the best ones. It's not enough to be one of the most intelligent ones, it's also very important, or even more important, to be able to understand and to adapt to certain things."

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