After being sacked by Man Utd and Chelsea, is it the last time Jose will manage in the Premier League?
Paul Higham picks the bones out of Jose Mourinho's time at Manchester United and wonders if it's the last time we'll see him manage in the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho’s turbulent spell at Old Trafford ended in the dramatic, headline-grabbing way that befits a man so often making back page splashes throughout his career, but the overlooked sidenote is that we may well have seen the last of this seminal manager in the Premier League.
His rollercoaster ride of a stay at Manchester United ended eerily enough in an almost identical fashion to his last spell at Chelsea – staying just seven days more at United and being relieved of his duties just one day later than his corresponding sacking from Stamford Bridge in December 2015.
On both occasions he seemed to have 'lost the dressing room', as the phrase goes, and while Jose's United didn't seem to have downed tools the way Jose's Chelsea did, the atmosphere surrounding the club, the body language of players on the field, just screamed out that something was amiss.
The post mortem of Mourinho's time at United reveals common themes of failures on all sides and it’s clearly a combination of bad tactics, man management, football business operations and players just not performing as they should.
Football operations at United not up to scratch
It’s clear that Ed Woodward and his footballing operations team haven't handled the entire situation the way fans would like. While United were struggling on the pitch, the team were releasing financial results with smiling faces and crowing about having more social media reach than the NFL and NBA combined.
United continue to grow from strength to strength financially off the field but falling 19 points behind Liverpool and even way off the top-four pace is a place United should not really find themselves in – it’s a position no team with United's spending power should find themselves.
There were several head-scratching moments in this Mourinho saga. It was all smiles when he signed a new contract in January, finished second in the table, but then was still not given the backing he wanted in the summer.
Let’s be honest, Mourinho’s transfer dealings at Old Trafford have been average at best, with even the big-money signings having just fleeting impact and showing only glimpses of why they cost so much money.
Fair reason, then, not to let him splash out another £70m on Harry Maguire, but you know what you’re getting with Mourinho – he delivers trophies, his record tells you that, but you also need to back him to the hilt in the transfer market. To hand out a contract until 2020 and then not do so was only ever going result in this very outcome – even if it came a little ahead of schedule.
Mourinho - An analogue manager in a digital age
I’ve already used the phrase “you know what you’re getting with Mourinho” but it’s especially true of his management and tactical skill-set, but once again this proved to be his undoing just as it was at Chelsea.
His keep-it-tight-at-the-back-pinch-one-going-forward style was only going to wash at United if trophies were being delivered, if titles were being challenged for, but it was never going to impress, entertain or enthral the fans.
Furthermore, Messrs Klopp and Guardiola were winning titles and getting to Champions League finals playing free-flowing, attacking, edge-of-your-seat football that was a joy to behold – having that going on across the city and just down the M62 was a bitter pill to swallow for United fans then turning up to watch the Red Devils labour in turgid encounter after turgid encounter.
Now, there’s playing defensively this way when you’re just not able to match an opponent in terms of quality – but if you’ve got the likes of Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Mata, Lingard, Sanchez at your disposal and you’re opting to pump the ball long to Fellaini in desperation then something's wrong.
Player body language has been used as a sign that they've not been playing for Mourinho when in fact it’s exactly the opposite. Rashford is a prime example of this, nobody can doubt his work rate but his slumped shoulders was a signal of his frustration at being handcuffed by Mourinho’s rigid defensive system.
When these shackles were lifted for England, you could see a different player.
The last we’ll see of Jose in the Premier League?
The simple fact is that football has changed in the Premier League, we’re all clamouring for attractive, attacking football, we want ball-playing centre halves and a goalkeeper is now judged more on his passing accuracy than his ability to keep the ball out of the net.
Fans want to be entertained, lifted out of their expensive seats, almost as much as they want to win. They’ll suffer through some bad football if they’re consistently winning silverware, but there’s got to be that sign, that hope and belief that they’re moving forward.
United have gone backwards in the latter stages of Mourinho’s reign, his refusal, or inability, to produce modern, attacking, entertaining teams has been his downfall twice now and it’s highly unlikely we’ll see him in the Premier League again.
Mourinho next club betting
Where would he go for a start? He’s not been the type of manager to take on a project – his good friend Jorge Mendes would have to promise him millions to persuade him to go to Wolves, while the rest of the top four or six wouldn’t entertain him given how he’s got on at United. He’s far more likely to turn up back at Real Madrid next summer.
It is a shame because, at his best, his impish behaviour and humour was still a delight for fans, and journalists of course, but it just seems he’d fallen out of love with the whole thing.
It may be that United was a job he couldn’t turn down rather than one he really wanted, and although he could well find himself back at the Bernabeu, he’s quite possibly done with Premier League management.
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