If history tells us anything, it’s that no Manchester United manager wants to be getting on the wrong side of the Andy Tate.
We all know what the Vine legend thought of Sir Alex Ferguson’s doomed successor. In fact, we’re sure the faint echo of a piercingly Mancunian “MOYESEH” follows David Moyes wherever he goes.
Louis van Gaal didn’t fare much better, with the 64-year-old ordered by Tate to “get off his fat, Dutch pancake arse” after last season’s home defeat to Norwich.
He’s probably also the best person to sum up the ongoing and mind-numbingly tedious Paul Pogba saga.
There’s every chance, then, that even with his full-to-bursting trophy cabinet, the newest man in charge at Old Trafford was slightly nervous about a face-to-face meeting with the man himself.
But luckily for Jose Mourinho, it looks as though he’s talked his way into Andy Tate’s good books from the offset. BT Sport gave FullTimeDEVILS, the YouTube channel that Tate regularly appears on, a video of a Mastermind-style meeting between the two, which is set to air before tomorrow’s Community Shield match between Manchester United and Leicester.
But it’s not his footballing philosophies that Tate wants to grill the Portuguese on – no, he wanted to see how quickly Mourinho had settled into Mancunian culture.
It’s fair to say the self-styled “Special One” aced the test. On questions about Coronation Street, Take That and the local roads, Mourinho is unflappable. Foie gras is well-known to be Mou’s favourite food, but he already understands that in the North West, nothing is more valuable than gravy.