Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo described Jose Mourinho as "an inspiration" and said he was honoured to have been praised by the Manchester United manager ahead of his side's trip to Old Trafford.
Mourinho was Nuno's manager while the Wolves boss was a goalkeeper at Porto between 2002 and 2004 and the pair won two league titles, the UEFA Cup and the Champions League together.
Ahead of the visit of in-form Wolves to Manchester, Mourinho described how he felt Santo had reached the Premier League "by his own merits and credits" and hailed his former player's "fantastic work".
Santo responded, saying his memories of working with Mourinho were indelible.
"Jose Mourinho was my manager for two years - what we achieved for Porto will be in our memories forever," he said.
"It's an honour that he speaks about me, but it's not about me it's about Wolves against Manchester United. What we'll see is two good teams of football trying to achieve the best result possible.
"To all the players that were in the squad [at the time] - he was a big inspiration. It will stay in our memories forever. But then things change you go on with your career personally - he was a big inspiration."
Wolves have not recorded a victory at Old Trafford in 38 years but they face a United team who were beaten 3-0 by Tottenham on their last league outing at home.
Santo's side are unbeaten in their last four games in all competitions and the coach insists they will be ready for the threat posed by Mourinho's men.
"We go there like all the games, we prepare ourselves," said Santo.
"We know Manchester United's team we know what we're going to face and we prepare for the competition.
"We know how hard it'll be but we want to compete and put our ideas on the pitch. It's our idea to put what we do in training sessions in the games so in that sense we're ready for it."
