United forging a special bond
Living with these guys is phenomenal
HE ADMITS Manchester United are not like other clubs with a galaxy of some of the best players in the world, but what Jose Mourinho has is something equally special. He has a bond he believes can lead the club back to greatness.
Chatting here at United’s training base in Georgetown on their pre-season tour in the USA, Mourinho revealed the connection he has formed with his stars since taking charge 12 months ago.
“Manchester United is Manchester United and I have to be honest, what makes me feel like this is my players,” said Mourinho.
“I like the guys. I keep saying the same thing. We are not the best squad in the world and don’t have the best players in the world, or we do have some, but not eight or nine or 10 like some other big clubs have. But I like them all. I like to work with them, I like to live with them.
“That is something during your career that does not happen every season. It’s difficult to like players the way I like these guys. It’s difficult to like them all. In teams there are always guys you like a lot and some others that you don’t enjoy so much.
“You don’t like their personality. But these guys are phenomenal, to live with them is phenomenal. They are big friends and good guys and I like them so much.”
It has already resulted in United winning two trophies in his first season in charge and a return to the Champions League.
Now the Special One’s focus is on landing the Premier League title and returning the fallen giants to the top of English football once again.
The Portuguese forged a strong relationship with his squad in his first spell at Chelsea and, with the likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard, it produced spectacular results, winning five trophies in his first three seasons, including backto-back titles.
Mourinho developed an ‘us-against-the-world’ mentality and is doing the same at United in the hope of replicating that success. He knows he has to make United champions again to be considered a true success as Louis van Gaal’s replacement. Titles are what United judge themselves on and they have not won the biggest prize in domestic football since 2013, when Sir Alex Ferguson retired in style.
Mourinho said the title fight will be more demanding than ever but does not think United should be considered favourites. He is backing Tottenham to be one of them and believes their refusal to sell him players like Eric Dier marks them down as strong contenders. “I’m not going to analyse individually all of our opponents but they all have great conditions also to win the title,” said Mourinho.
“Everybody speaks about the dimension of the investment at Manchester City but there is another team that I feel the dimension of their investment is also phenomenal. Tottenham. “I think until now they spent zero pounds, right? For me the dimension of their investment is amazing. They keep everybody they want to keep. They keep Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld. They keep Eric Dier, they keep everyone.
“Chelsea are champions and they buy now. We are halfway through the market and they buy Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata.
“Every club make different kinds of investments but all are investing a lot to win the title. We spent big money on a striker in Romelu Lukaku because, with strikers, you either spend big or you don’t get.
“We are better than last season and the spirit is fantastic. The confidence levels are good and the fact we had success last season was also important to relax some personalities.
“They feel more confident to go into the Champions League without being a candidate. That’s good. We went into the Europa League with the tag of favourites and that’s not easy. And we’re helped by the fact that everybody of the top seven is in Europe.
“Last season Chelsea and Liverpool were not in Europe and that gave them a chance to be stronger than the others in the championship. I don’t think we are big candidates for the title, but we are candidates.”