He sees enemies everywhere, but does not accept the faults within

SIr ALeX FerGUSOn used to look as though he was carrying the whole of Manchester United’s world on his shoulders, and that’s largely because he was. In public at least, the responsibility began and ended at his door and he knew it.

Ferguson could be unpleasant at times but he rarely turned his back on his responsibilities to his team. If United lost, he dealt with it. recriminations — whether they be upwards towards the boardroom or down towards the dressing room — would usually be sought behind closed doors.

Jose Mourinho could learn from that. The current United manager deserves some credit for this astonishing turnaround against newcastle. But what we know is that defeat would not have been his fault, not in his eyes. Mourinho identified those who he wishes to blame for his team’s miserable season before a ball had even been kicked. The board, the media, his players. If anybody has been ‘manhunting’, it has been him.

Watching United’s regression since Ferguson retired has been interesting, not least when viewed through the prism of the behaviour of the three managers who have followed him.

david Moyes looked overawed and then haunted. Louis van Gaal had too little humility to understand that english football would not just bend to his every whim. emotionally and psychologically, it is a huge ask to lead this football club. We know that more now than we ever did. no wonder Ferguson used to carry the stresses and strains on his face like a road map.

Still, who would have thought it would prove too big for Mourinho, formerly of Chelsea, Inter and real Madrid? Who would have thought that a man who has always looked as though he has never missed a night’s sleep in his life would buckle under the strain of managing this enormous institution?

For that is how it looks now. That is how it looked and sounded as he delivered his captivating, extraordinary and ultimately selfobsessed soliloquy to BT Sport on Saturday evening.

Mourinho is currently a man who sees enemies everywhere but does not recognise the faults within. It is a terrible combination for a football manager and if he doesn’t find clarity over the international break, a combination of Chelsea and Juventus will quickly send him to that dark place of no return that newcastle threatened to on Saturday.