GET ON WITH IT
After a summer of moaning, Jose finally agrees to just...
FOLLOWING a summer of frustration and friction and a total spend of £380million since becoming Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho has finally accepted he must now just knuckle down and get on with the job.
Deadline day passed without United landing the centre-half Mourinho so badly wanted, leaving him to deliver some typically contradictory messages.
After appearing to be unhappy with certain players – Anthony Martial for one – during the club’s pre-season tour, he claimed yesterday it was “a lie” to suggest he did not get on with certain stars or rate some of the others.
And yet, almost in the same breath, he claimed that guiding United to runners-up spot last season was one of his greatest managerial achievements – presumably because he felt his squad had punched well above their weight. He suggested after the defeat by Bayern Munich in their final warm-up game last Sunday that United faced “a difficult season” if they did not make any further signings. But his tone yesterday was that, come November and December, they would be in title contention and he was going to enjoy the season.
The cynical view is that Mourinho now knows, until the January window at least, he must deal with the players he has and so feels the time is right to give them a ‘big-up’.
After all, he needs them to hit the ground running and has even appealed to players who have had little preparation because of the World Cup, such as Paul Pogba, to play against Leicester tonight.
He may not have landed his centre-half but he cannot expect too much sympathy given the amount United have spent over the past five transfer windows – and that £380m total does not include the huge wages and signing-on fees paid to free transfers such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez.
Two of those signings have been centre-backs – Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof, costing about £30m each – and both are young enough to improve. It is up to Mourinho to get
the best out of those players as well as enigmatic World Cup winner Paul Pogba, the apparently disgruntled Martial, January signing Sanchez and youngsters Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw.
Other clubs would love those players, so Mourinho needs to ask why have they not performed at their peak on a consistent basis for United. Is it all their fault, or is he to blame as well?
A more conciliatory approach on occasions would help and the penny seemed to drop as Mourinho attempted to put the record straight about his relationship with his players on the eve of tonight’s Premier League opener.
“I like my players and my group,” he said. “I like to work with my players. One lie repeated 1,000 times is still a lie but the perception of people is that it’s true.”
He also revealed some of the reasons he has been so surly for the past few weeks: because he feels he did not get the credit he deserves for steering United to second place last season and he had to deal with a “skeleton” squad in pre-season. In a dig at ‘media-darlings’ Tottenham and Liverpool – who finished third and fourth – he said: “It is difficult for me to believe that we finished second, because you are capable of making people who finish second look like they have been relegated and people who win nothing look like serial winners. “I have won eight championships – three in the Premier League – but I keep feeling the second place last season was one of my biggest achievements.” As for pre-season, he said: “It looked like I was saying something absolutely out of order, something crazy, but I repeat: pre-season is difficult when you don’t have your players to work with, it’s simple as that.”
With six players ruled out by injury tonight, others not up to full speed because of their post-World Cup holidays and no new signings arriving, Mourinho was reluctant to outline United’s targets for the season – while still clearly believing they will be in the mix. His mood was certainly more positive yesterday.
“I have to stop thinking about the market now because it is closed,” he said. “I will focus on the players I have. The target is simply the Leicester match.
“I know the words you want me to say or not to say. It depends on the music but words don’t come easy. Come November and December we will see who the championship candidates are.
“I enjoyed last season, the fight to finish in the best position this club has had in five years.
“And I’m going to enjoy this season.”
You never know, if United beat the Foxes, we may even get a smile.