Jose’s been taking time off - to go to scout for players
JUST what do you do with all that free time?
Tony Pulis, a valued friend of Jose Mourinho’s, has spent the international break sunbathing in Barbados despite West Brom enduring a worrying 10-game winless run.
The 59-year-old’s mind will not be far from his side’s clash against Chelsea next weekend, but his 6,688km jaunt to the Caribbean has sent the wrong message to the club’s loyal support as the Baggies hover above the relegation zone.
Mourinho, in contrast, has not stopped working - despite his squad being ripped apart by international commitments.
In a week where his daughter, Matilde, celebrated her 21st birthday, Mourinho has decided against spending all of his time catching up with his family in Knightsbridge.
Having given Chris Smalling, Ander Herrera and others some welldeserved time off, Mourinho has been busy planning ahead while the speculation about his long-term future continues.
The Portuguese rocked up to the Friends Arena - the scene of his greatest United triumph just six months ago - on Friday night.
Tellingly, he was alone and there was no sign of Rui Faria, Silvino Louro or any of his trusted assistants.
Mourinho was taking the excursion so seriously that he was even sat several rows away from a grinning Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who also popped along to watch Sweden’s play-off win against Italy.
There were two very obvious reasons why Mourinho was there: to check on Victor Lindelof’s progress in, arguably, one of the biggest games of his career; and to monitor Matteo Darmian’s performance ahead of several potential starts in the coming weeks. But that seems a little simplistic. Mourinho has regularly used the international break for sole scouting missions and even watched Ivan Perisic in action for Croatia against Ukraine back in March. The Portuguese has also made a habit of disguising these trips with the help of his own players.
Mourinho watched Austria’s 3-2 win against Serbia last month when Nemanja Matic was in action, but his eyes will have surely been drawn to the performance of tricky winger Mijat Gacinovic.
There are not many players Mourinho knows better than Matic, one of his favourite ever footballers, so why would he spend a evening off just watching him in Vienna?
The same could apply to Sweden’s clash with Italy as Mourinho plans ahead for what is sure to be another busy summer. PSG midfielder Marco Verratti and RB Leipzig forward Emil Forsberg were just two of the big names in action.
Of course, given the incessant speculation about a move to the Parc des Princes, a cynic may suggest that does not really prove anything. Mourinho could just as easily be planning his wishlist for his next job, which is one of his main strengths as a manager.
Within 41 days of taking over at United, Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all signed and negotiations in the Paul Pogba deal were well underway. But while his own future is dominating headlines, with United eight points off top spot, the wheels are already in motion ahead of next year.
Representatives from United made the 5,290-mile journey to the UCLA’s campus last month and plans are already afoot ahead of some tricky scheduling issues because of the World Cup.
Up to 21 United players could compete at next year’s showpiece event in Russia, and only Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Antonio Valencia have definitely been ruled out after Armenia and Ecuador both failed to qualify.
Given how the club’s former secretary, John Alexander, only visited the campus last December, ahead of the summer tour, United are wasting no time as they look to finalise a number of crucial details to land Mourinho’s favoured pre-season base.
And Mourinho could yet be leading those sessions in July, 2018.