EFL CUP FINAL PREVIEW
JOSE Mourinho is on the verge of making history at United.
But for a manager who has made it his business to brush up on the club he joined in the summer, it is likely he already knows that.
Victory against Southampton in the EFL Cup final at Wembley tomorrow will make him the first United manager to win a major trophy in his debut season at Old Trafford.
Not even Sir Matt Busby or Sir Alex Ferguson can match that.
It took Busby three seasons before he won the FA Cup in 1948 and another four before he won a first league title in 1952.
Ferguson took over in November 1986 but had to wait until 1990 to win the FA Cup. The first of his 13 Premier League crowns didn’t arrive until 1993.
Dave Sexton in 1977 and David Moyes in 2013 won the Charity Shield in their first seasons. But Mourinho has already done that, too. There are greater prizes than the League Cup on offer for a club of United’s size. But there has been a feeling among Mourinho and his staff since the summer that it is a good place to start.
The Portuguese coach won it in his first season at Chelsea in 2005, and again in 2015. A coach who was been in charge at Porto, Inter Milan and Real Madrid can not help but understand the value of silver.
The League Cup has been a good barometer of United’s struggles over the last three years.
Moyes reached the semifinals, only for his team to be eliminated on penalties by Sunderland.
A lack of confidence under the ex-Everton manager came bursting out in the form of four failed spot-kicks – two of which didn’t even hit the target.
Louis van Gaal’s first experience of the League Cup ended in a humiliating 4-0 defeat at MK Dons.
It is perhaps fitting that the Dutchman’s involvement the following season was ended by Middlesbrough, again on penalties, after a miserable 0-0 draw at Old Trafford - coming in the middle of a run of three consecutive 0-0 draws. It was as much the turgid football as it was the relative lack of success that cost Van Gaal his job. Mourinho’s first words to MUTV in May were to dismiss the three seasons since Ferguson’s retirement as though they had never happened. Moyes once said United ‘should aspire’ to be like City and that Liverpool were favourites ahead of a game at Old Trafford. And by the end, Van Gaal would often say expectations at the club were ‘too high.’ Mourinho, though, has taken a different approach. He insists he is bound by tradition to play football in a certain way. He cannot, he says, throw away the chance of a trophy by fielding a weakened team – even if it means putting long-term aims at risk. It was noteworthy this week that the 54-year-old said he will not field an under-strength team in the FA Cup sixth round at Chelsea next month – even with a fixture pile-up becoming a real problem – because United ‘don’t allow it.’ Rob Dawson