Jaap Stam believes Manchester United may have found the right man to bring success back to the club following three turbulent seasons following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Since Ferguson's departure from Old Trafford in 2013 the club have only won the FA Cup and have failed to qualify for the Champions League twice in three seasons.
But Stam, who won three consecutive Premier League titles and the Treble while a United player, reckons Mourinho could be the man to put the club back at the top.
"Of course, everybody was watching to see what the next manager [David Moyes] could do, can he be successful as well and can he bring the same quality of football and players that Ferguson did," Stam told the Guardian.
"Everybody needs to know that it is very, very difficult to accomplish. They were struggling after that for quite a while but eventually they did quite well and they got higher up the table.
"Louis van Gaal came in as well -- everybody had their hopes up with him joining the club -- but you see how difficult it is for a manager to win the league again.
"It's a hard job being the manager of United and now Jose Mourinho steps in and everybody is expecting a lot from him. They are spending, again, probably a lot of money to get quality players in, so hopefully for the fans he is going to bring the prizes and trophies again."
Stam, who was managed by Guus Hiddink and Sir Alex Ferguson during his playing career, is drawing upon elements of both men's styles as he embarks on his first senior coaching role with Reading.
"Hiddink was very important because he is a man-manager and is very good with players," he said. "He gives the whole squad a good feeling and what they need to do to perform together.
"What I learned from Ferguson was how to build a team. As a manager, you need to have your own vision and what you want to do with the team. You need to have certain players with certain qualities in your team, to create your own style of play and I think Fergie was very good at that.
"Ferguson did not look at names because you see a lot of managers buy big names because they think if they get this player then because he's already a name he will perform for me. Ferguson was the type of manager that looked at the qualities of a player he needs in a certain position at a time and he was world-class at that. I think it brought him a lot of trophies at the time."