Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed the reason behind not naming a successor to assistant Rui Faria is that he’s grooming Michael Carrick for the role.

“(There will be) no number two,” Mourinho told reporters after United’s final Premier League game of the season, a 1-0 home win over Watford.

“Moving forward, I will organise my coaching staff in a way where the assistant manager figure doesn’t exist,” the Portuguese added.

Faria, after 17 years of working under Mourinho, will be forging his own path.

“I’m going to have coaches, assistant coaches, fitness coaches and a structure where we have specialists in different areas, connected to the performance by analysts. I’m not going to have an assistant manager in the sense of the word.”

“The particular reason is that I think it will be Michael Carrick in the future, when he has his badges and his pro licence, when he makes the bridge from a player to an assistant,” the Red Devils boss added.

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“People think it’s just like ‘one day I am a player, the next day I am a coach’ and it’s not like that. The brain can be ready for that but then you need the practice, the decision-making, the control, the leadership, the work in groups.”

“I don’t think it makes sense when Rui is leaving after 17 years. I have nobody in the world of football to be my assistant manager – nobody,” Mourinho continued.

Carrick, after 464 appearances spread over 12 years for the Manchester giants, will be hanging up his boots at the end of the season.

His place in Mourinho’s backroom staff had already been confirmed, but the Portuguese’s revelations that the midfielder is being groomed for the assistant’s role will please the United faithful to no end.

“So I prefer to educate people, to structure my staff in a way where there is space for their education, for their improvement, and I think naturally, when Michael has the coaching and pro licence badges, normally, with the personality he has, with the friendship, with our honesty, I think it will be for him.

“Of course I have to make the decisions but my assistants have an opinion and he has. Obviously, he will have a different opinion to those you can get from any other scout, or any analysis department.”

United will have the chance to give their captain the perfect sending off when they take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final on May 19.

“I can call Sir Alex (Ferguson) the intelligent one to buy him and I can call him the happy one to have him for so many years of his career as a phenomenal player.

It’s not been a great season for the Red Devils, despite their highest-ever finish in the Premier League since Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

Silverware, domestic and continental, has eluded them and the FA Cup is the last chance of ending the 2017-18 campaign on a high.

“I’m not so sad because it’s just the end of his career as a player, but he stays with us and I’m always more connected to the person than the player; people are more important to me than players, so I’m going to have him stay with us, and because of that I’m not so sad.”

Mourinho also confirmed that there will be some new faces joining his team as he added.  “I am going to improve my staffing in the performance level in relation to the fitness and the relation with the tactical work. So I’m going to bring some people in.”