The past week has seen the ultimate power play by Jose Mourinho.
Following Manchester’s United’s Champions League exit to Sevilla, Mourinho went on the attack. He has taken aim at the club and his players. In his lowest moment as United manager, Mourinho has bet the house on the club backing him. He wants full support from fans for his every decision, he wants United to back him as he attempts to overhaul the squad and he is seeking to realign expectations following a defeat that reflects poorly on him.
It’s clear what is happening here – Mourinho is attempting to break the club down and rebuild it in his image. He tried this at Real Madrid and he tried it twice at Chelsea. On each occasion, it backfired spectacularly.
However, Mourinho may just get his way at United, as the club, from the board to many supporters, appear to be blindly following him.
According to two separate reports last week, Mourinho has the full support of Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman and the man with the final say on decisions at the club. Spanish football journalist Diego Torres writes that there is a lack of “sports management” knowledge at boardroom level. Woodward possesses commercial expertise, rather than football knowledge. Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton, who were reportedly against the appointment of Mourinho, have been isolated and their power diminished after they backed David Moyes to be the manager in 2013. In short, there is a power vacuum at United which plays perfectly into Mourinho’s hands.
At Real Madrid, he had more power over transfers than possibly any other manager in the club’s history, yet it still wasn’t enough, he still couldn’t topple Barcelona or win the Champions League with the club. The dressing room became divided between the Spanish players and many of Mourinho’s recruits and it ended in a predictable fashion when he left the club in 2013, after falling out with most of his team.
When he returned to Chelsea, Mourinho was just one part of the decision-making process along with Michael Emenalo, Marina Granovskaia and owner Roman Abramovich. Antonio Conte’s experience this season conveys how a Chelsea manager, no matter how successful he is, will never have complete control over transfers.
Yet, there is no such structure at United. If Mourinho says he needs five new players, who at the club will question him? He wanted Alexis Sanchez, so he got him ahead of Manchester City and at great expense. The club now appears willing to sanction any transfer Mourinho wants, and there’s nothing to suggest that they won’t back him when it comes to departures from the squad.
Some United fans also appear willing to blindly follow Mourinho, although many others seem to have seen the light. Rather than being viewed as a man desperately rambling to deflect from his shortcomings, Mourinho’s incredible press conference last week has been re-framed as a display of “passion” and “fight.”
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When United play without ambition in possession – when they pass the ball sideways or lump it long – these fans blame the players, they say that the players lack intent, that there are no leaders in the team. As Steven Gerrard said after the defeat to Sevilla, United lack “desire.” They ignore that it is a directive from Mourinho to not pass the ball into central midfield, that his only discernible tactic against Sevilla, other than instructing his team to hide in their own half, was to launch throw-ins to Marouane Fellaini. How can you blame players for following orders? Why single out individuals for playing poorly in a restrictive, reactive tactical plan that neuters the most talented and creative players? United’s current failings are systematic, not individual.
For a long time, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was the scapegoat. The focus is now on Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez, the team’s most talented players. Just give Mourinho another £300m, and the players he wants, maybe then the team will perform, the argument will go. However, by now it should be obvious that it doesn’t really matter who United sign as long as Mourinho is the manager. The players aren’t the problem. At what point will this become clear to those who continue to defend Mourinho? Maybe when he turns on a new set of players next season.
For many, Mourinho is still that charismatic young coach who took the Premier League by storm in 2004. His tactics are defended as being “pragmatic”, despite being the antithesis of this. He is arguably an ideologue, wedded to his notions of anti-possession football, who won’t adapt his approach and is still trying to surrender the initiative and exploit opposition mistakes. That worked for him between 2003 and 2010, but top-level football has moved onto a new cycle. A “pragmatic” manager would have adapted by now, as Ferguson did repeatedly.
The defeat to Sevilla exposed that the emperor has no clothes. Yet, Manchester City’s procession to the Premier League title has been re-cast by some as a result of the club spending more money than United in the transfer market, rather than City possessing a better coach who improves his players.
The time for United to appoint Mourinho was in 2013. The experienced players in Ferguson’s final squad might have responded to his methods, the club wouldn’t have dramatically sunk as it did under Moyes and United would have got Mourinho out of their system. They would have moved on by now, possibly to Mauricio Pochettino, or another manager more suited to the club.
United sacked Moyes and Van Gaal when they failed to qualify for the Champions League – Moyes left after it was mathematically impossible to qualify for the competition, and Van Gaal lasted a week after the end of the season because of the FA Cup final. It’s possible that if the United squad turn against Mourinho, as his players seemed to do at Chelsea and Madrid, and if the club drops down the table, then they will part ways with him. But that won’t happen until next season at least, and by then the squad could be altered further to fit Mourinho’s approach. History suggests the players will tire of him turning on them, and they’ll question why he won’t show them the same loyalty he demands from his team.
Yet, at the moment, it looks as though United are blindly following Mourinho. The club is only likely to increase his power, to give in to his demands and some fans will become more entrenched in their support for him. History shows that this will only end one way. By the time his defenders realise this, Mourinho will be at another club, blaming his players for defeats and once again deflecting from his shortcomings.
