Pressure is starting to mount on Jose Mourinho following Manchester United’s Champions League exit.
United crashed out of the competition after their bizarrely meek tactics backfired against Sevilla. They had just four shots on target across the two legs of the tie and were deservedly beaten by the Spanish side. The team’s approach has come under scrutiny, with questions being asked of Mourinho and whether his ultra-reactive tactics can deliver sustainable success and the big trophies – the Champions League and the Premier League.
I'm repeating myself about Mourinho at this stage, but here's something I wrote about the match tonight… https://t.co/b2zlSRduGY
— Robert Redmond (@RobRedmond10) March 13, 2018
However, some have been pointing out the flaws within Mourinho’s approach for some time now, and United’s turgid approach shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton reportedly overlooked the former Chelsea manager when the club opted to appoint David Moyes in 2013, and it sounds like the pair weren’t keen on Jose when he was eventually named United manager three years later.
Diego Torres, a football journalist for Spanish newspaper El Pais, has a report on the current situation at Old Trafford, and he makes some interesting claims.
According to Torres:
- Ferguson and Charlton advised against appointing Mourinho when the club sacked Louis van Gaal. They reportedly had an issue with Mourinho’s “style of play” and felt that his “character” would not fit with the attacking traditions of the club. However, Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, was determined to give Mourinho the job and had the final say.
- The club lacks “sports management” at boardroom level. A source told Torres that United’s owners, the Glazers, don’t attend matches because “they do not like football; they only want the dividends.”
- The signing of Sanchez has caused issues in the dressing room and in United’s financial department. The Chilean is reportedly paid £350,000-a-week and has played poorly since joining from Arsenal in January.
- Paul Pogba wants his wage to match Sanchez’s, and there are concerns about the wage bill, which Torres claims now accounts for 60 percent of United’s turnover.
- He writes that Mourinho has “lost energy.” He is isolated in his “self-referential universe”, and understandably missing his family, who still live in London.
Regardless of who United sign, they're still managed by Mourinho | @RobRedmond10 https://t.co/IJIBGJx7eC
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) July 22, 2017
You can read the full report here. As with any report, we should treat the claims with a pinch of salt. Torres appears to have well-placed sources at clubs throughout Europe though and is the author of The Special One: The Dark Side of José Mourinho, which covered Mourinho’s time at Real Madrid.
If Ferguson and Charlton were against Mourinho’s appointment, it shows that even United’s fallow years – by their own standards – and difficult reigns of Moyes and Van Gaal wasn’t enough to convince them that Mourinho was right for the club. The report also depicts a club in desperate need of someone with football knowledge with the power to make key decisions.
