Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka is ready to challenge old pal and mentor Jose Mourinho against Manchester United
Boro boss was the Special One's assistant during their three-year spell together at Real Madrid
AITOR KARANKA reckons Middlesbrough are just like Manchester United - because they have both got the Special One’s stamp.
The Boro boss comes up against his mate and mentor Jose Mourinho tomorrow for the first time in his managerial career.
And Karanka believes his struggling side have the look of the 20-time English champions, as he has brought his Portuguese pal’s footballing philosophies to Teesside.
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The Spaniard was Mourinho’s No2 at Real Madrid for three years - his first club coaching role, which led to him landing the Boro hotseat in 2013.
And Karanka admitted: “Sometimes I analyse Man United and I can find similarities with us.
“In terms of tactics, we are similar to them.
“They lay with the same shape, they are confident with the transitions.
“They have a reference player up front like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, albeit with different quality.
“You want your team organised. When I analyse Man United, when they don’t have the ball, it is easy to compare with us.”
Karanka admits he would not be stepping out at Old Trafford this weekend were it not for Mourinho's tutelage.
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And the ambitious Riverside chief wants to one day emulate the Special One and go on to boss a big team in the Champions League.
Karanka said: “This was one of those games I was most looking forward to.
“We are really good friends and we have a really good relationship. We communicate a lot. He is different in private.
“At the end of the match we will share a glass of wine, or coke, and one of us will be happier than the other.
“I said always that I would say thanks I don’t know how many times.
“I am now in the Premier League because I learned a lot with him every single day.
“When I was speaking about coming to Chelsea with him or starting my own career, my concern was if I was ready to start.
"He looked at me and said, 'Are you joking?'. And I said, ‘No Jose, I am concerned because I don't know if I am ready'.
“He said, 'You are more than ready' and when Jose Mourinho is telling you things like that, then I thought, 'I am ready'.
“My ambition is to beat him on Saturday, not what I might do in the future, in the Champions League.
“I hope one day I can do something like that - but I am doing the steps at the moment.” Karanka, who was a Real player for five years, will never forget his first conversation with Mourinho in 2010, while he was still coaching Spain Under-16s.
He explained: “I didn’t know him beforehand. I didn’t have a relationship with him.
“When he was coach at Porto, he was saying in the press conference that Aitor should have been sent off! “But when I was working with the national team, Fernando Hierro called me to say Jose wanted to speak to me and then Jose called me.
“He told me had been talking to three former team-mates of mine about me - Luis Figo, Clarence Seedorf and Predrag Mijatovic.
“He told me he didn’t want an assistant who always says ‘yes’.
“He told me his staff was like a family and he said he would send me a few times to the press - and he sent me 89 times!
“Everything he told me in that first conversation happened in those three years, 100 per cent, so he is honest.”
Karanka, whose Boro won at United last year in the League Cup on penalties, believes there is no better manager than Mourinho in world football.
And he added: “He is a mix of everything - knowledge, character, passion, personality.
“Watching the game, I don’t know how many steps forward he is.
“The way he prepares the players, trains the players, leads the changing room, for that reason he is the best.
“The best example is his relationship with the players when he leaves the clubs - like when he goes to Arsenal, Mesut Ozil will give him a hug.
“We know each other so I will try to surprise him - but it is difficult to surprise Jose.”