Javier Hernandez would have scored 20 goals for Manchester United last season had he not been sold, claims Jose Mourinho

  • Jose Mourinho believes Javier Hernandez would have thrived in Manchester 
  • Mourinho believes the Mexican would have scored 20 goals last season 
  • Instead, Hernandez was allowed to leave by former boss Louis van Gaal 
  • Hernandez will face United on the opening day with his new team West Ham 

Jose Mourinho conceded Javier Hernandez would have scored 20 goals for Manchester United last season, had his predecessor Louis van Gaal not sold the striker.

That is now a target for the Mexican with West Ham, and the £16million man known as Chicharito will have his chance to get off the mark against his former club at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Hernandez does not yet know whether he will celebrate if he scores but insists he feels as fresh as when he first arrived in England in 2010, even at the experienced age of 29.

Javier Hernandez would've scored 20 for Manchester United last season, says Jose Mourinho

Javier Hernandez would've scored 20 for Manchester United last season, says Jose Mourinho

‘I’m feeling in the same way I did in my first day in England, the same way I go to play with the national team,’ Hernandez said.


‘I appreciate the good words about myself that Mourinho speaks. He’s one of the best managers in the world and it’s motivating for me as a player that a manager like him can say that.’

So can he score 20 for West Ham and help them towards Europe? ‘We’ll see,’ he continued. ‘One thing I don’t want to change, even if I’m 40 years old, is the hunger I have inside me. 

‘I feel the same as when I went to Manchester United, when I went to Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, and now West Ham. I am going to play football.

Hernandez was allowed to leave Manchester by former manager Louis van Gaal

Hernandez was allowed to leave Manchester by former manager Louis van Gaal

Mourinho has on previous occasions admitted he would have kept Hernandez at Old Trafford

Mourinho has on previous occasions admitted he would have kept Hernandez at Old Trafford

‘It is easy to say now I can score 20 goals or I have a lot of pressure, blah blah blah. Speaking is easy, but the most important thing is to prove myself on the pitch.’

Hernandez repeatedly referred to the Theatre of Dreams as his ‘old house’ yesterday and he is expecting an emotional homecoming.

The striker, who scored 37 league goals for United, was sent on loan to Real Madrid in 2014-15 before Van Gaal sold him to Bayer Leverkusen for only £7.3m.

Hernandez had a special relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson, who signed him in 2010, and remembers the day the Scot told him that he was retiring in the Old Trafford dressing room.

Hernandez is in line to face United on the opening day of the season with new club West Ham

Hernandez is in line to face United on the opening day of the season with new club West Ham

‘I didn’t see it coming,’ Hernandez said. ‘Nobody did. It was very strange. We were shocked. It was his life. He was the manager who brought me here and opened the door to Europe. He gave me a lot of opportunities to live the dream.

‘We all knew there was going to be a transition (at United). You cannot have a manager for 26 years – the best manager in history, achieving everything, changing the squad every couple of years, changing players, even all the staff sometimes – there was always going to be a transition.

‘The change of Sir Alex retiring, we knew it was going to be very difficult. He was unique in the history of football.'