WELL said, Mr Mourinho. It is not often that you will read that here, but Manchester United’s Marmite manager can be a force for good when he puts his mind to it.

The reason for finding space in this column to praise Jose is simple – his love affair with the FA Cup and Wembley.

Ahead of United’s tie at Blackburn, he took a verbal swipe at those managers who look on the cup as an annoying interruption to their ambitions of earning the kudos that comes with the success of a mid-table league position.

Mourinho did not name names, but you did not have to look far to find who he meant when he suggested that certain foreign managers do not understand the culture of the country. Especially when it comes to fielding second or third-string players against lower-league opposition.

“Normally it is because of attitude, because you think it’s easy. It’s not easy, the lower league teams are getting better,” said Mourinho.

He knows that well enough; his own Chelsea team were knocked out by Bradford City in 2015. “But I never threw it away,” he insisted.

Now he can show the country that he is a true believer by taking a full-strength side to his former club in the quarter-finals. After all, United are the holders of the Cup.

STILL on the cup, another overseas manager – Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola – would like to see replays scrapped altogether (they are scrapped from the quarter-finals on). But his reason for meddling with the cup traditions is a bit baffling.

He suggests that doing away with replays would improve the quality of English football. Surely, the solution is simpler than that; to improve English football, don't we need managers like Pep Guardiola to include more English players in his team? That is if he is seriously concerned about the state of the game here.

City, ironically forced into a replay by Huddersfield Town, included just two Englishmen in their starting line-up for the fifth-round tie.

WHENEVER a British club gets thumped by an Aussie side in the World Cub Challenge Series it is because the NRL is far superior to Super League.

When the Aussie visitors get a tonking – as happened at Warrington and Wigan over the weekend – the reason is that the Australians are here on a pre-season jaunt and the Challenge is only a warm-up game to blow the cobwebs away and the Fosters out of the system.

Or, of course, it’s the referee’s fault. Shane Flanagan, coach of beaten NRL champions Cronulla Sharks, practically said as much after Wigan Warriors' 22-6 victory. He told his Sky Sports interviewer that he can’t wait to get back to Australia and start the serious competition.

At least when he gets home he will have twice as many reasons to complain – the NRL operated with a two-ref system.

JUST when the 13-man code gets a chance to sneak a place in the minds of all rugby lovers with the World Club Challenge Series, the union boys come up with some headlines of their own.

Denny Solomona, the winger Sale Sharks lured from Super League side Castleford Tigers in an on-going row over transfer fees, scored a hat-trick against Wasps; Georgia – ranked higher than Italy – want a place in the Six Nations and, probably biggest of all – and this may be unprecedented – a total of 46 tries in six games – more tries than penalty goals.

Meanwhile, Super League bosses ponder over what the fixture formula will be for next season. The much vaunted, then derided and finally shrugged off Super Eights system is likely to be dumped because it has lasted three years (longer than most marvellous ideas rugby league has).

Perhaps new Super League executive Roger Draper might like to take a drive down to Twickenham to ask how the RFU manage to draw in 60,000-plus on a weekend with not a single current international player on duty in the Aviva Premiership.