By now football fans will have taken a gander at an El Pais article which reports Man United enter into a written pre-contract with Jose Mourinho which would bind him to the club in the future but under the terms of the deal, if the club decides not to hire him, the Portugese will be entitled to financial compensation. Mourinho has always nursed ambitions of one day coaching Man Utd and it was thought his personal equation with Sir Alex Ferguson would make him a front runner for the job after the legendary coach’s retirement. However, concerns over his negative, ultra defensive brand of football, his poor track of nurturing youth talent, and divisive nature ultimately counted against his unparalleled record of title successes. The hiring committee in the end went with Sir Alex’s personal recommendation, i.e., David Moyes.
The holding pattern of this deal reveals a deeply divided board who although anxious about the future direction of United who have drifted in the post SAF world under Moyes and now Louis Van Gaal struggling to regain the club’s vaunted attacking verve, still retain enough doubts whether the Special One is the right one to guide the club. The powers to be are still casting around for other more agreeable options with names like Mauricio Pochettino, Ryan Giggs, and Thomas Tuchel being bandied about. Meanwhile, there are indications Florentino Perez is prepared to do an about face and re-hire Mourinho for Real Madrid.
One must remember that this is the football world – a hyperbolic world designed to wind people up and get them to behave a certain way. A case in point, the Sergio Ramos was all set to sign with United, except they were widely seen as carefully calculated media leaks to squeeze out more money from Real for an improved contract. A reason as likely as any is that these reports have been planted in the Spanish media to exert pressure on Perez to return Mourinho to Madrid. In fact, the more one reads of the El Pais article, the more one gets the feeling they are throwing down a gauntlet- only the best coaches hack it in the Liga, while the Premier League is a league of bankrolled clubs with little regard for innovation. The article also does not fail to mention Perez’s regret at letting Mourinho go. After all, he did give them their last Liga title four seasons ago (this season is as good as over for their title aspirations) and since then Real have fallen further back having gone through Ancelotti, Benitez, and finding no bounce under Zinedine Zidane. The cloud that Mourinho left under was largely the result of a player revolt led by Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos. Perez was clear he tolerated no such locker room unrest. Mourinho would expect improved immunity and a more welcoming atmosphere if he returned.
As far as Man Utd are concerned, there are signs that Van Gaal has been responsive to pressure but in a very pointed contrast to the man rumoured to replace him, giving run outs to the talent coming up from the United youth ranks, such as Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, and Timothy Fosu- Mensah. Alongside Anthony Martial, Lingard and Rashford are making waves with their speed and cutting edge up front.
Mourinho, on the other hand, in his first stint at Chelsea relied invariably on a core of experienced and battle tested players with little rotation. The success achieved using small squads and man micro-management informed his later success at Inter, Real Madrid, and his return to Chelsea. When Chelsea won their third league title under Mourinho last season, he did so creating the team around a spine of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, and Nemanja Matic, seasoned players developed and honed elsewhere. Squad burnout probably accounts for his ceiling effect. Coming back to Chelsea made no perceptible difference to his philosophy and he did nothing to reverse the club’s policy of farming out its ranks to various European Leagues. The departure of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne demonstrates Mourinho’s blind spot and impatience in spotting and nurturing talent. Under Guus Hiddink, there seems to be some sort of nod to youth as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Bertrand Traore making all too rare appearances fill holes in the attacking options out of necessity. John Terry remains the only player to enjoy the distinction of climbing up the youth rungs to command a regular starting role and this happened in 1998.
Under Mourinho, Rashford and Lingard might have been sent out on loan with little hope of every making the senior squad. There would have been no praises being heaped on them today for their ability in breaking down Man City’s defence repeatedly. Rashford scoring the only goal, a strike of the most exceptional quality. The board will have to seriously consider the direction it wants the club to take because Mourinho’s fixation with success comes down to a very narrow bandwidth of personnel, tactics, and more tellingly for the long term, a diminishing return now well documented.