Comment: It’s time Reds chiefs backed Mourinho
LESS than a fortnight in to the new season, United are facing their first ‘crisis’ of the campaign.
Losing usually signals a crisis at Old Trafford, such is the gargantuan size of the club and should they succumb to another defeat against Tottenham on Bank Holiday Monday the club crest will be torn apart on national back pages.
As Sir Alex Ferguson once said: “This is manna from heaven for you press guys. We’re front page, back page, middle page, in the comic strip – the lot. We’re the biggest club ever, in the planet, the universe. Remember that.”
The current manager has finally got some overdue backing. United have dismissed rumours they are considering Zinedine Zidane to replace Jose Mourinho, rhetorically asking: “Why would we discuss Zidane when there is no job available?”
United had to support a manager after undermining him in the transfer market.
If Mourinho had it his way, Alex Sandro, Toby Alderweireld and Willian would be in his squad and Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo and Anthony Martial would be elsewhere.
That his plans were vetoed by bean-counters was a recipe for disaster and the pot was brewing long before the Brighton debacle.
It has now descended into farce, with Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola name-checking Ed Woodward in his jibe at Paul Scholes after he offered an understated analysis of how feckless Pogba’s Brighton performance was.
The board and manager, sorry – head coach – are split over the transfer policy, their starriest outfield player is rocking the boat and his agent is at the wheel of it.
As Gary Neville eruditely observed, United backed Mourinho by extending his contract by a year in January as he flirted with Paris Saint-Germain, so they had to back him in the transfer market.
Who are financial figures with no footballing background to tell Mourinho how a club should operate in a transfer window? The Glazers and Woodward have seemingly banked on United securing Champions League qualification when it is anything but a guarantee. Mourinho was dismissed by Chelsea in 2015 with the club 16th and United finished sixth in his first campaign, returning to the Champions League via the Europa League catflap. Brighton was Mourinho’s Olympiakos or Midtjylland, only David Moyes and Louis van Gaal should have been sacked before their nadirs. Mourinho’s position should not be in jeopardy, despite the instability he is operating under. Mourinho is not exempt from blame; it is legitimate to wonder whether the three fractious years at Real Madrid have neutered him and it is reasonable to question his preferred profile of player in an age where pressing and pace are essential qualities; qualities lacking in the current United squad. His tendency to focus on what the opposition can do to his team rather than vice versa is becoming out-
United had to support a manager after undermining him in the transfer market Samuel Luckhurst
dated and the players were programmed to play rigidly at the weekend.
Mourinho has tried to get on the front foot, be it with a midfield axis at Tottenham in January or a playmaker as a holding midfielder on Sunday, only he seems about as comfortable with it as Woodward looked on camera at the Amex.
Managers must be judged on what they are doing rather than what they have done and it is futile dwelling on United’s finish above ‘serial winners’ Tottenham and Liverpool three months ago. What matters is now and United could be six points adrift of those two – and City – this time next week.
Yet there is no obvious panacea. Zidane, like his one-time ally, Carlo Ancelotti, reaped what others sowed at Real Madrid in inheriting maybe the best squad on the planet. His man-management was always going to be an improvement on the reviled Rafael Benitez and however spectacular an achievement it was claiming a hat-trick of European Cups, Real were often reliant on luck or spontaneous brilliance en route to Kiev last season. Zidane would not have Cristiano Ronaldo at United.
The Reds faced fiercer fires under Ferguson. There was the ‘Ta ra Fergie’ bedsheet in 1989 and 13 years ago Roy Keane was whipping up a mutiny until the manager was empowered to dismiss his captain midfielder. A repeat seems unlikely but United’s phenomenal following at Brighton chanted Mourinho’s name defiantly, rather than Pogba’s.