Jose Mourinho says he’d pack Rui Faria’s bags for him if the assistant manager had the chance to manage a club like Arsenal, despite the close relationship the pair have.

It seems the English media are linking every manager and assistant in the game to the Arsenal job at the moment. The latest is Manchester United assistant coach Faria, and Mourinho thinks it would be a good fit.

“I think so, yes,” he said in Wednesday’s Irish Independent. “You ask me if I think it would be a good fit and I say ‘yes’. And I say it because he is more than my assistant, he is my friend.

“If my friend has the possibility one day of a big job, I would help him to pack and to carry the bags and to wish him luck.”

Faria started his footballing journey as a fitness coach at Uniao Leiria in 2001, alongside Mourinho. He stuck with the Portuguese manager at Porto, then Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea again and now Manchester United. Clearly they have a close relationship, and I’m sure Mourinho would be sad to see his assistant go.

I don’t really have any interest in seeing the 42-year-old at Arsenal though. He often comes across as Mourinho’s henchman, willing to make a scene to try and help his manager get his own way.

He got a four-match stadium ban in 2014 for abusing the officials, an unusual charge for an assistant manager.

Personally, I’d quite like a manager who makes me proud to support the club, at least. I’m not sure Faria would do that. Plus, given he has never managed before, I don’t see why we should expect him to be good enough at it anyway. Hopefully this is all just paper talk.