Manchester United: Is Jose Mourinho the new specialist in failure after sacking?

With the dust settled after Mourinho’s departure, we take a look into the legacy he left behind at Manchester United

When it became clear in 2016 that Manuel Pellegrini’s reasonably successful Manchester City reign would come to an end, Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon Al Mubarak felt it was the right time to announce Pep Guardiola’s overdue arrival to English football. With this revelation to the footballing world, it seemed like Manchester United could only respond in one obvious way- bringing Jose Mourinho to Old Trafford.

We had seen the touchline confrontations, the mind games in the media and ultimately on-field tactical battle in Spain where they both spearheaded the two biggest clubs in the world. All these events prior to their simultaneous presence in the English tabloids was simply a trailer for the blockbuster movie to come, or so we thought.

Mourinho’s first season

Into his first season after being appointed in June 2016 there was no surprise in my opinion with Mourinho’s approach to the football on and off the field. He wanted four signings and the history of the Mourinho effect suggested he gets them, which he did. The most notable of those being the 89 million pound signing of Paul Pogba.

The new boys made their impact early on as the Red Devils won their first three games with the main event waiting in match week four. Welcome Pep Guardiola to Old Trafford and the Portuguese suffered his first loss to a home crowd, however, it seemed early enough to recover. After the next game which was a defeat to Watford, hope began to crumble slightly.

Whilst this was going on, in the background was a hungry Antonio Conte masterminding what would become a brilliant run of 13 games unbeaten with Manchester United and Mourinho being one of the bitter victims. 4-0 read the scoreline on October 23rd 2016, as a rampant West London Outfit denied Mourinho the homecoming he thought he deserved with an exchange of words between himself and Antonio Conte eclipsing the fair result. After this damaging defeat, Mourinho’s only hope, in his eyes, was to go for it in the Europa League.

Mourinho’s second campaign

‘4-0 FC’ was born and Mourinho’s men were beating teams with a convincing scoreline adding more value to the title race. But when Manchester City came round to Old Trafford again, Romelu Lukaku faced social media humiliation after having a hand in both of City’s goals that condemned the Reds to another loss against their rivals.

The gap widened between both Manchester Clubs and although a reasonable campaign followed this defeat, there was no silverware to show for it due to Pep and Manchester City, flexing their muscles in all departments.

However, in January of 2018, Ed Woodward and the Manchester United board felt Mourinho deserved a contract extension seeing as the club were headed in the right direction at the time if you put Manchester City aside for one second. The contract was due to keep the Portuguese on until 2020 with the option of a further year, till 2021.

With this contract, the club were effectively making a public statement that they agree with what he has done so far and trust his future endeavours, at least for the foreseeable future.

But as Gary Neville alluded to, you cant make such an action if you’re not ready to back the manager in all departments and this was the case that had to be dealt with in the summer when it seemed the desired centre-back on Mourinho’s wishlist was never going to come. Alderweireld, Yerry Mina, Harry Maguire and Diego Godin were the most notable names circling Carrington as the transfer window came to an earlier close- the night before the first game of the season.

We had seen it all and the fans, players and board were walking into a pivotal season considering the three-year lifespan of Mourinho’s tenures. Careful inspection of his second season in his homecoming at Chelsea show similarities with what happened at Old Trafford. Publicly going after star players such as Eden Hazard, having major bust-ups with the media and his own staff in Eva Carneiro, as well as similar rumours of friction between manager and players. All these unfolded in Manchester as previously mentioned hinting it was a matter of ‘when?’ and not ‘if’ for the self-proclaimed Special One’s departure.

The final straw for Jose

It’s December 16th and Liverpool play host to a troubled Manchester United. An off-form Paul Pogba is reduced to sitting in the cold on the bench and rightly so although, the defensive prowess of the line-up shows one lacking in intent. Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Matteo Darmian, Diogo Dalot and not to mention Ashley Young who is now a defender albeit not a great one, all started.

Just like Mourinho’s career at Old Trafford, it seemed like a matter of ‘when?’ for Liverpool to score and impose themselves on their arch-rivals. When the first goal did come, Liverpool showed their class with a brilliant assist and finish to round up the move. Manchester United went on to lose 3-1 with two goals from Xherdan Shaqiri, something which Mourinho described as fortunate, before isolating 4th position as the only achievable target.

The defeat to Liverpool meant Manchester United had now endured their worst start to a Premiership campaign ever and also conceded more goals by December than they had all season in the previous campaign. On Tuesday 18th December 2018 at 9:45 am, Manchester United released an official statement saying the club and manager had parted ways following a face-to-face meeting between Mourinho and Chief Executive Ed Woodward.

As much as it was Mourinho’s fault to be unemployed at this stage again, the players’ lacklustre performances along with the board’s naivety in offering him a new contract all culminated in the club’s downfall.

Pochettino, Zidane, Blanc and Jardim are all names circling to be the successor for next season with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as temporary manager.

In the grand scheme of things, Manchester United get to hold on to their priced assets such as Martial and Pogba as the transfer window is lurking and although a fresh approach to the football is due, high-level challenging and competition for Europe’s silverware may take a process requiring 6-8 years at the very minimum.